In nature, lithium does not exist in its elemental form but is stored in minerals such as spodumene, lepidolite and phosphoalumite. The global lithium resources are concentrated. Chile, China, Argentina and other countries have abundant reserves, while Bolivia's salt lake lithium resources have particularly outstanding potential.
To extract industrially usable lithium, a series of complex beneficiation processes, which lie between mining and smelting, are required, aiming to obtain high-grade lithium concentrate. This process mainly includes three major links: crushing, grinding and sorting.
Crushing is the process of gradually breaking large pieces of lithium ore into smaller ones to meet the particle size requirements of the next process. It can be divided into three stages: coarse crushing, medium crushing and fine crushing.
Grinding is a process carried out in mechanical equipment, using media such as steel balls, steel rods or gravel, to fully dissociate lithium minerals from gangue through impact and grinding, providing materials of appropriate particle size for subsequent sorting.
Sorting, also known as separation, is an operation that uses specific methods to separate useful minerals from gangue minerals and enrich lithium minerals. After sorting, two products are obtained: lithium concentrate and tailings.
Throughout the entire mineral processing procedure, a variety of specialized equipment are required. For instance, jaw crushers are commonly used for coarse crushing, cone crushers for medium and fine crushing, ball mills or Raymond mills for grinding, and flotation machines and other equipment are relied on for separation. CRONUS has been dedicated to the research and development and manufacturing of mining machinery , providing customers with mature processes and efficient, reliable equipment solutions.
No matter where your lithium mine project is located, if you need professional equipment support or process consultation in the crushing, grinding and other links, please feel free to contact CRONUS at any time. With decades of technological accumulation and global project experience, we are willing to provide reliable solutions for your mining development.
