Thanks professor. Is there any physical or chemical method to separate individual minerals from the composite sediment?

Very nice professor. I think we can use the technique for other minerals also. I need your reference paper or link for further work in ultrasonic disagglomeration professor.

Yes, sure. I take your suggestions

Hello thanks all to for this discussion which is impressive for me.

I absolutely agree with Prof. Kenneth and I think it could be very difficult to separate Kaolinite, Illite and Smectite from each other! but I believe you can separate your clays from other minerals and improve its grade.

As Prof. Kenneth said; you can apply ultrasound irradiation successfully in basic medium pH (Above 9) (from my point of view) for dispersing of clays in slurry therefore application of sonication by addition of NH4(OH) can be successfully applied; however in my case I have applied ultrasound Irradiation and sodium silicate as depressing and dispersing agent! Currently I am writing the paper and when it is published I will inform its information accordingly in this topic.

Regarding separation of other minerals such as Calcite; Dolomite, Quartz and so on; you can use both chemical and physical approaches such as selective flocculation and centrifuge forces and hydro-classification systems and as Prof. Kenneth mentioned you can use Stokes' Law for separation of clays from other minerals (such as Calcite; Dolomite, Feldspar, Quartz) and I think you can search for some papers about application of Anderson Pipette in this respect. I think I have something in my database I will try to find something.

I would like draw your attention if you have minerals (Clays and non-clays) with different particle size distribution (PSD) you can use centrifuge separator and hydro-classification machines. In my case I have applied hydro-cyclone for separation of Micas and Quartz and partially coarse Calcite from Kaolinite and Illite.

With pleasure; I will be happy to secure comments of colleagues in this topic.

Best regards,

Hamed

We have an Ocean of Kaolinite in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. We are looking for a company/ individual to harvest and process the raw material.