Evaluation and Beneficiation Opportunities of Pyrophyllite Ore (Pütürge-Malatya)

Abstract

Pyrophyllite, a hydrated aluminum silicate mineral (Al₂Si₄O₁₀(OH)₂) is industrially valuable due to its high refractoriness, chemical inertness, and low thermal expansion. It finds widespread use in various industries such as white cement, ceramics, refractories, plastics, paints, rubber, and cosmetics. Particularly in the ceramics industry, it is favored as a substitute for clay and feldspar due to its minimal volumetric changes during firing and high-temperature resistance. The commercial viability of pyrophyllite ore is largely contingent upon its purity, mineralogical composition, and particle size. Raw pyrophyllite ores frequently occur in association with other minerals, including quartz, mica, chlorite, and feldspar. These impurities invariably diminish the industrial utility of pyrophyllite, thereby underscoring the critical importance of beneficiation processes. The escalating demand for pyrophyllite in industrial applications necessitates the development of effective and economic beneficiation techniques to yield high-purity products with desired characteristics. Among these techniques, attrition scrubbing combined with classification, leveraging pyrophyllite's low hardness and brittleness, and flotation, exploiting its natural hydrophobic properties, have emerged as prominent methods. In this study, a pyrophyllite ore characterized by a relatively low alumina content (20.64% Al₂O₃) and high silica content (73.41% SiO₂), obtained from the Pütürge (Malatya) pyrophyllite deposit, was subjected to beneficiation through attrition scrubbing+sieving and flotation. The beneficiation result from attrition scrubbing+sieving yielded a product with 29.33% Al₂O₃ and 61.85% SiO₂ at a particle size of -75 µm. Also, flotation beneficiation resulted in a pyrophyllite concentrate containing 27.01% Al₂O₃ and 65.56% SiO₂ with a particle size of -150 µm.