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For some antimony deposits, the first opportunity is to separate barren rock before it enters the grinding circuit.
Where antimony minerals occur in coarse, sufficiently liberated particles, screening and gravity separation may produce an enriched fraction or reject part of the waste rock. This can reduce the mass requiring further treatment.
The opportunity depends on liberation and mineral distribution—not simply on a low head grade.
Pre-concentration testing should establish:
A lower grinding load is useful only if the resulting metal losses and overall economics are acceptable.
Sorting may also be evaluated where mineral contrasts and feed presentation support it. Manual selection should not be treated as the default approach for every plant.
An antimony assay shows how much antimony is present, but not how it can be recovered.
Stibnite, oxidized antimony minerals, and complex antimony-bearing sulfides can require different treatment. Weathering, mineral locking, and associated valuable metals also influence the route.
| Feed Characteristics | Processing Questions |
|---|---|
| Coarse, liberated stibnite with lighter gangue | Can gravity separation recover antimony or reject waste before grinding? |
| Fine-grained stibnite | What grind and flotation conditions provide useful recovery and selectivity? |
| Oxide or mixed sulfide-oxide ore | Which phases contain antimony, and how does each respond to treatment? |
| Gold-antimony ore | How are gold and antimony distributed, and what recovery sequence suits both products? |
| Complex polymetallic ore | Can separate saleable products be produced, and where do impurities report? |
Oxide ore should not automatically be assigned to gravity separation. Density contrast is useful only when particle size, liberation, and material behavior allow effective separation.
Likewise, a flotation route developed for stibnite should not be assumed to recover all antimony-bearing phases.
Gravity separation can be considered where liberated antimony minerals can be separated from gangue by density.
A conceptual arrangement is:
Crushing → Size Classification → Gravity Separation → Concentrate and Middlings Treatment
Jigs may be evaluated for suitable coarser fractions, while shaking tables may be tested for finer classified material.
Different size fractions may need separate treatment. Middlings may require further liberation rather than repeated passage through the same separator.
The required outcome may be a finished mineral concentrate, an enriched feed for flotation, or a rejected waste fraction.
Flotation is an important option for fine-grained stibnite that cannot be recovered adequately by coarse physical separation.
A conceptual arrangement is:
Crushing & Screening → Grinding & Classification → Conditioning → Rougher and Scavenger Flotation → Cleaning → Concentrate Dewatering
Grinding, reagent conditions, and cleaning stages should be selected together. The circuit must balance antimony recovery with gangue rejection and impurity control.
LIPU’s sulfide ore flotation plant solutions provide a related processing framework, with antimony-specific testwork establishing the actual operating requirements.
A combined route may suit feeds containing both coarse recoverable antimony minerals and finer material requiring flotation.
One possible arrangement is:
Crushing & Classification → Gravity Pre-concentration → Selected Streams to Grinding and Flotation → Separate Concentrate Dewatering
The gravity concentrate, middlings, and rejected streams need individual evaluation. They should not automatically be combined or sent to the same downstream operation.
Combined treatment is justified by the behavior of the material and the overall recovery—not by the number of equipment types included.
Antimony recovery can be affected by both insufficient liberation and excessive fines.
Locked particles may remain in tailings or contaminate concentrate. Excessive grinding can create material that is difficult to recover by gravity separation and can complicate flotation, settling, and filtration.
The preparation circuit should therefore consider:
Where required, a ball mill operates with classification equipment to control the material entering flotation.
Washing or desliming may help with clay-rich feeds, but the removed fine fraction must be assayed. It should not be discarded without understanding its antimony content.
Antimony recovery alone does not define a successful processing route.
The concentrate must also suit the receiving smelter or downstream treatment facility. Product requirements should be obtained early enough to influence separation testing and circuit design.
| Product Factor | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Antimony grade | Influences concentrate value and downstream treatment requirements |
| Arsenic and other specified impurities | May affect acceptance, treatment charges, or the required processing route |
| Associated valuable metals | Can influence product routing and commercial terms |
| Moisture and physical condition | Affect handling, storage, transport, and receiving requirements |
| Product consistency | Determines whether the plant can supply an acceptable product across changing ore feeds |
Impurity removal depends on mineral association. A separate unwanted mineral may respond to selective separation; an element contained within the recovered mineral may be much harder to reject by physical beneficiation.
The proposal should distinguish production of an antimony mineral concentrate from downstream production of antimony metal or compounds.
A high antimony assay in tailings does not, by itself, identify the correct recovery method.
Residual antimony may occur as:
Each cause points to a different response.
Gravity treatment of flotation tailings should only be included where testing identifies a recoverable fraction. Spiral concentrators, shaking tables, and centrifugal units are not interchangeable without testing their suitability.
A size-by-size mineral and metal balance helps determine whether to improve the existing circuit, treat a selected fraction, or evaluate a separate recovery stage.
Antimony concentrates normally require solid-liquid separation before storage, transport, or further treatment.
Thickening and filtration equipment should be selected through settling and filtration tests. Moisture removal improves handling but does not inherently increase dry-basis antimony grade.
Gravity and flotation concentrates may have different particle-size distributions and dewatering characteristics. Whether they can be combined should be confirmed against product specifications.
Process-water return should account for suspended fines, dissolved substances, and residual reagents that could affect separation.
Tailings characterization should also establish the behavior of antimony and associated elements under the proposed storage conditions. Dewatering alone does not determine residue stability or return-water quality.
A useful proposal starts with a recovery objective and evidence about the feed.
Please provide:
The resulting proposal should explain:
LIPU uses these inputs to develop the process arrangement, equipment selection, and site configuration for the project.
Send LIPU your ore information, planned capacity, test results, and target concentrate requirements.
Whether the project involves coarse stibnite, fine disseminated ore, or a mixed feed, the starting point is the same: establish where the antimony occurs and which separation steps recover it into an acceptable product.
Is gravity separation or flotation better for antimony ore?
Neither is universally better. Gravity separation depends on density contrast, liberation, and particle size. Flotation depends on mineral response and selectivity. Some feeds benefit from combined treatment.
Can a low-grade ore be upgraded before grinding?
Possibly. Testing must establish how much material can be rejected and how much antimony would be lost. Low grade alone does not prove that pre-concentration will work.
Can oxide and sulfide antimony ores use the same circuit?
Not automatically. Their mineral properties and processing responses may differ. Mixed feeds require testing of the individual antimony-bearing phases.
Can gold and antimony be recovered from the same ore?
Potentially, but the recovery sequence depends on mineral associations, metal distribution, and downstream product requirements. Both metals should be included in the process balance.
Should flotation tailings always pass through gravity equipment?
No. Additional gravity treatment is useful only where tailings contain particles that the selected equipment can recover effectively.
Does an antimony processing plant produce antimony metal?
The beneficiation routes described here produce mineral concentrates or enriched products. Production of antimony metal or compounds requires additional downstream treatment.
We provide a variety of mining and processing equipment, including feeders, rock crushers, grinders, classifying and screening machines, washing machines, gravity separators, flotation machines, magnetic separators, electric separators, dewatering equipment and laboratory mineral processing equipment.
