PRELIMINARY PROCESS MINERALOGY OF AGBADO-OKUDU. IRON ORE

Preliminary studies were carried out on samples of the low grade Agbado-Okudu iron ore deposit to characterize the ore prior to beneficiation. The iron ore is metasedimentary in origin and belong to the Precambrian Basement Complex rocks of Nigeria. Methods employed in the study include the use of transmitted and reflected light microscopy, screen analysis and chemical analysis. The result of microscopy indicate that the major minerals in the Iron ore are hematite and quartz with minor magnetite chemical analysis reveals Fe as 34.00%, SiO2 is 49.50%, Al2O3 is 2.5 % and P and S less than 1%. Textural relationship of the minerals, grain size, locking characteristics and screen analysis coupled with chemical analysis of the ore indicates that the ore can be upgraded using relatively cheap and economical methods of Air-floatation and Gravity separation techniques to produce concentrates that meet the feed specifications of blast furnace operation of 60 % Iron total (Fetotal)