Milling of Molybdenum

Through a series of crushers and ball mills or rod mills
mined ore is pulverized to fine particles. These particles'
sizes are only microns (1/1.000th mm) in diameter. This
procedure liberates the molybdenite from its host rock.

A water slurry of the ore is then conditioned with reagents
- including fuel or other oily substances - which makes
the small molybdenite particles water-repellant.

For separation by flotation aerated tanks are used.
Molybdenite particles attach to rising air bubbles and concentrate
in the surface froth which is swept into overflow troughs.

Subsequent regrinding and reflotation stages increase the
molybdenite content of the new concentrate stream by steadily
removing unwanted material.

The resulting final concentrate contains around
70 - 90 % molybdenite.

If required an acidic leach can be used to dissolve
impurities like copper and lead.

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