Thermomagnetic Study for Identification of Mineral Phases

• Published in: Materials research (São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil) Vol. 20; no. suppl 2; pp. 125 - 129
• Main Authors: Cunha, Anderson Alves, Silva, Fabiane Leocádia da, Silva, Blênio Márcio Cunha, Mendes, Jefferson Januário, Solé, Ruben Antonio Llobell, Araújo, Fernando Gabriel da Silva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Sao Carlos Universidade Federal do Sao Carlos, Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais 01.01.2017; ABM, ABC, ABPol; Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol)
• Subjects: Curie temperature; ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL; Hematite; Iron compounds; Iron ores; Magnetic bearings; Magnetic permeability; magnetic susceptibility; Magnetite; MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; METALLURGY & METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING; Minerals; Neel temperature; Néel temperature; Optical microscopy; thermomagnetic study; Néel temperature; magnetic susceptibility; thermomagnetic study; Curie temperature
• ISSN: 1516-1439; 1980-5373; 1980-5373
• DOI: 10.1590/1980-5373-mr-2017-0044

The characterization of materials is an area of extreme importance for engineering, it uses a range of instrumental techniques to provide an information bank for material analysis and selection. In the treatment of iron ore the mineralogical characterization is done, almost exclusively, by optical microscopy. However, materials with very fine granulometry, below 4 µm, make their preparation and visualization restricted in this equipment. The present work aims to identify the minerals Hematite, Magnetite and Goethite in samples of tailings from the iron ore processing, employing a Bartington MS3 that evaluates the magnetic susceptibility as a function of the temperature. These measurements make it possible to identify Curie temperatures characteristic of Magnetite (580 °C) and Hematite (675 °C), as well as Goethite's Neel temperature (120 °C). The results showed that the application of the technique is of great value for the identification of the magnetic bearing minerals and the quantification of the magnetic potential of the sample.