Türkiye’s leadership in global boron reserves makes efficient beneficiation and value-added processing of boron ores a strategic priority. The review article “Enrichment of Boron Using Physical and Chemical Methods” by Prof. Dr. Gülay Bulut, Assist. Prof. Dr. Şükriye Beste Aydın, Assist. Prof. Dr. Kudret Tahsin Perek, and Prof. Dr. Fatma Arslan from the Department of Mineral Processing Engineering of the Faculty of Mines provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of the main physical, thermal, and chemical approaches used in boron enrichment.
As it is well known, Turkey holds 72% of the world’s boron reserves. Therefore, the country has accumulated significant expertise in the enrichment of boron minerals, both in industry and in R&D studies. Upgrading of B2O3 content of the boron minerals can be done with several concentration methods, namely physical concentration, flotation, thermal, and chemical processes. Physical separation methods such as washing, trommel-screening, hand-sorting, classification, and attrition scrubbing are applied after size reduction. In the application of these methods, the particle size is as important as the type of gangue minerals present and clay removal is recommended before enrichment. The purpose of this review article is to examine the boron enrichment methods performed on ores and tailings in laboratories and plants. It has been found that many methods were successfully used.
Figure illustrates a comparison of (a) the abrasive action of the attrition scrubber and (b) a typical nonselective grinding approach (Bulut et al., 2025).
The review work can be read via the following link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08827508.2025.2502360#d1e136
Related article: Bulut, G., Aydın, Ş. B., Perek, K. T., & Arslan, F. (2025). Enrichment of Boron Using Physical and Chemical Methods: A Review. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/08827508.2025.2502360