INVESTIGATION OF ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNUTIES OF ESKISEHIR BEYLIKAHIR REGION BARITE AND FLUORITE WITH PHYSICAL METHODS

As it is known, many studies have been carried out on the beneficiation of rare earth elements containing barite and fluorite in Eskişehir Beylikahır region. When the results of the previous studies are investigated, it is seen that although partially successful results have been obtained, a full enrichment has not been achieved yet. In this study, the main aim was the investigation of barite-fluorite enrichment by gravity separation techniques after the separation of high content rare earth products. Primarily, mechanical attrition on the original sample was applied based on literature information. 15 minutes with a 75% solids ratio was determined as the optimum conditions. According to the chemical analysis results, it was observed that the rare earth element content increased at -38 µm, 85-90% of REEs accumulated and total rare earth oxides (REOs) content increased up to 10%. By this information, +38 µm materials were ground to the different sizes for gravity experiments. As a result of the test at - 150+38 µm size fraction, barite was obtained with 85.6% content and 88.3 % recovery. On the other hand, CaF2 pre-concentrate containing 62.9% was obtained with a recovery of 90.8%. Research continues within the scope of the project, and the findings obtained at this stage will be evaluated to obtain optimum conditions for both barite and fluorite.