Removal of iron from sandstone by magnetic separation and leaching: case of El-Aouana deposit (Algeria)

: To improve the quality of raw materials from North East Algeria and their application in the field of flat glass manufacturing, the sandstone of El-Aouana (Jijel) was subjected to a physicochemical characterization. Analysis techniques such as X-ray diffraction, atomic absorption spectrophotometry and a chemical analysis of size fractions by sieving were used. According to this characterization it is noticed that sandstone feedstock contains primarily quartz (SiO 2 ), as well as ferriferous minerals considered as impurities during glass manufacturing. This work concerns the removal of iron oxide from silica sandstone to obtain a material acceptable for flat glass manufacturing. For this, we have studied the silica enrichment process using a magnetic separation. Moreover, a leaching process by using hydrochloric acid has been studied under various experimental conditions; the parameters studied were: hydrochloric concentration, temperature, and time of contact. The results obtained show that the leaching studied presents a better removal of iron oxide after 150 min of treatment at temperature 90°C with a 3 mol/L, a concentrate obtained final of 99.16% SiO 2 with a content of 0.01% Fe 2 O 3 .