Beneficiation of colemanite concentrates from fine wastes by using ultrasound waves

Abstract The aim of this work is to investigate possible use of ultrasound waves in the concentration of colemanite from fine wastes. The retention time, pulp density, amount of feed and particle size were varied to determine the optimum conditions. The same sample was also tried to be cleaned with conventional mechanical attrition and washing methods, and results obtained by these two different methods were compared. A colemanite concentrate containing 33.01% B 2 O 3 was obtained from a feed containing 24.17% B 2 O 3 with 84.93% recovery using mechanical attrition and washing. Concentrate containing 41.69% B 2 O 3 was obtained with a recovery of 97.01% using ultrasound waves.