TY - JOUR N2 - A steady global decline in the grade of chromite ores is causing an increase in the mining of low grade and complex ores. The processing of such low grade and finely disseminated ores results in the increased production of primary and secondary slimes. Slimes have very poor recovery performance in most conventional technology and are usually disposed of into tailings storage facilities (TSF). The historic slimes in the TSFs and those arising from most chrome production processes constitute potential recoverable chrome resources. In this study, the selective flocculation of slimes from a chrome processing plant in the north west province of South Africa was conducted using raw corn starch and sodium oleate as flocculants and sodium silicate a dispersant was applied on. Limited work has been reported on the flocculation of non-synthetic chrome slimes. The results showed that a slime sample with a chrome (Cr2O3) head grade of 22.92% was upgraded to a maximum concentrate grade of 42.55% at a sodium oleate dosage of 88 g/tonslurry, a sodium silicate dosage of 44 g/tonslurry, 39.61% at a starch dosage of 106 g/tonslurry and sodium silicate dosage of 62 g/tonslurry. The corresponding recoveries using sodium oleate as a flocculent were between 80–89% and 73–79% for starch. Sodium oleate showed a better performance than starch in terms of both grade and recovery. Decantation washing tests showed that the chrome (Cr2O3) grade of the concentrate can be further increased to above 44%. These results are very encouraging as they indicate that selective flocculation can achieve satisfactory upgrade ratios and recovery when processing chrome ultrafine or slime material. L1 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/124976/PDF-MASTER/Sibanda%20i%20inni.pdf L2 - http://journals.pan.pl/Content/124976 PY - 2022 IS - No 4 EP - 230 DO - 10.24425/gsm.2022.143624 KW - selective flocculation KW - chrome slimes KW - flocculent KW - dispersant KW - recovery KW - grade A1 - Sibanda, Vusumuzi A1 - Makara, Lehana A1 - Sebose, Lerato A1 - Setimo, Thulaganyo A1 - Mamvura, Tirivaviri Auguatine A1 - Danha, Gwiranai PB - Komitet Zrównoważonej Gospodarki Surowcami Mineralnymi PAN PB - Instytut Gospodarki Surowcami Mineralnymi i Energią PAN VL - vol. 38 DA - 2022.11.08 T1 - Selective flocculation and recovery of chrome from plants limes using starch and sodium oleate as flocculants SP - 205 UR - http://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/124976 T2 - Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi - Mineral Resources Management ER -