Preliminary Beneficiation and Washability Studies on Ghouzlou's Low-Ash Coal Sample

In the present research work, a low-ash coal, from Ghouzlou deposit in Iran, with an average ash content of 12% was subjected to some beneficiation experiments such as heavy media separation and flotation. Sieve analysis showed that 62.3% of the coal sample with the size of +2 mm had around 7.3% ash contents. Also, heavy media tests carried out on five size fractions revealed that by setting the separation density at 1.4 g/cm3 for the coarse fraction (+1 mm), a 5% ash product with more than 70% coal recovery was obtainable. Samples with lower ash content (<5%) were blended with high-ash coals (>5%) based on the Mayer curves to produce a 5% coal product. Moreover, flotation tests on -1 mm fraction could reduce the ash content from more 13.2% to 10.4%.