LABRADOR - Recent bench-scale tests at SGS LAKEFIELD RESEARCH of concentrate from the LabMag iron ore project demonstrated that the material is suitable for making direct reduction grade iron pellets. NEW MILLENNIUM CAPITAL of Calgary, which holds 80% of the project, is encouraged by the results.
Two magnetite samples of concentrate produced from the LabMag deposit were submitted for flotation tests. In batch tests, it was determined that a rougher-cleaner flowsheet including a grinding stage prior to cleaning was capable of producing a low-silica (less than 1.5% SiO2) iron concentrate at a recovery of some 90% for coarse feed and some 95% for fine feed. Concentrate at a grade of 1.54% SiO2 at 97% recovery was obtained with locked cycle testing of the same flow sheet, reported New Millennium. The rougher kinetics tests suggest that a simpler rougher-scavenger flowsheet may also produce similar concentrates.
The company (www.NMLResources.com) hopes to build an open pit mine and concentrator at Howells River, Labrador, connected by a 230-km pipeline to a 15-million-t/y pellet plant at Ross Bay Junction. Pellets would then be railed to Pointe-Noire, Quebec, and shipped to customers around the world.
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