Cradle to Gate
Identity ID
8b70e809-8527-469f-9f94-59221fa7c49d
Materials
Associated ID
fb8dc7eb-0348-419c-b4c5-4e24e2874612
Included activities starts
Included activities ends
Description
This dataset represents the production of 1 t of antimony concentrate. It assesses the resource consumption and environmental load of the antimony ore beneficiation process. The product represented by this dataset is antimony concentrate, an antimony sulfide mineral aggregate obtained through beneficiation enrichment with an antimony grade significantly higher than that of the raw ore, characterized by high density, easy flotability and controllable associated impurities. In the industrial chain, the key upstream raw material is antimony-bearing primary ore (such as stibnite ore or antimony-bearing polymetallic ore), and the downstream is mainly used for pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical extraction of metallic antimony, which is further processed into antimony alloys, antimony trioxide flame retardants, lead-acid battery alloy grids and military materials, etc. The system boundary includes the processes directly related to antimony concentrate production, such as raw ore reception and storage, crushing, grinding, flotation, concentration (cleaning), scavenging, thickening, filtration, drying and tailings conveying and stacking, and also covers supporting links such as the preparation and dosing of reagents used in the beneficiation process, water recycling and wastewater treatment, and dust collection, involving the main raw and auxiliary materials, energy and the generation and disposal of beneficiation wastes; it explicitly excludes non-direct production processes such as the mining of raw ore, mining-area transport, the manufacture and installation of beneficiation equipment, and the construction of plants and on-site infrastructure; the dataset includes the main raw and auxiliary materials, energy and wastes of the production process, while infrastructure such as the manufacture of production equipment and plant construction is not included within the dataset boundary; the data inventory is formed by merging data from multiple sources.
Activity Description
Antimony concentrate production uses antimony ore as raw material, and removes most of the gangue through a series of physical separation processes such as crushing, grinding, and sorting to achieve the enrichment of antimony minerals. The main inputs are raw ore, water, electricity, and mineral processing agents (such as xanthate, black powder, foaming agent, etc.), and the output is antimony concentrate products, tailings, and medium and low-grade intermediate products, accompanied by mineral processing wastewater and dust emissions; the process flow includes raw ore crushing in sequence. Screening, grinding to appropriate particle size, slurrying and dosing for flotation (often priority flotation or mixed flotation-separate flotation combined process), roughing and multiple beneficiation to improve grade, sweeping to reduce antimony loss, concentrate dehydration (concentration, filtration or filter press), drying, and tailings transportation and storage. Some companies also set up return water recycling and waste gas collection and treatment links in the process to ensure resource utilization and environmental compliance.
Process Description
Antimony concentrate is an enriched product obtained from antimony ore through crushing, grinding, flotation and other beneficiation processes. Antimony concentrate is in powder or granular form, with relatively low impurity content, but is still accompanied by small amounts of arsenic, lead, iron and other elements. As the main raw material for smelting antimony metal and its compounds, antimony concentrate has high utilization value and good smelting adaptability, and is an important intermediate product in the industrial production of antimony.
Time period
2021
2026
Geography
China
Geography comment
Generated by merging multiple data sets in this geographical location.
Macroeconomic value
Business-as-Usual
Data validation
Yes
Technology
Current Technology
Technology comment
The mineral processing process adopts flotation and gravity separation. In the flotation process of antimony raw ore, lead nitrate is used as the antimony activator, butyl xanthate is used as the collector, No. 2 oil (also called No. 2 oil or pine oil) is used as the foaming agent, and concentrated sulfuric acid is used to adjust the pH value and clean the surface of the ore particles.