Research on Preparation and Characterisation of High-purity Silica Sands by Purification of Quartz Vein Ore from Dabie Mountain

To obtain high-purity silica sands by using quartz vein ore from Dabie Mountain, Anhui province, China as raw material, this study investigated a quartz purification process that involves calcination, water quenching, flotation, acid leaching, and alcohol-deionised water cleaning procedures. The composition, particle size, phase, and morphology of the silica sands were respectively determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, laser light scattering, and scanning electron microscopy. Results show that samples with particle sizes of approximately 140 mesh to 200 mesh have the lowest concentrations of aluminium and potassium. The purity of silica in the refined silica sands is higher than 99.997 %. The concentration of potassium and sodium impurities is 1.0 ppm, and that of aluminium impurities is about 12 ppm.