The low-grade clay-rich -1.0 mm fraction of fine iron ores have often proved difficult to upgrade and capital intensive to process when using traditional wet beneficiation technology including single or two stage hydrocyclone desliming, wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS), spirals and final dewatering using fine screens. Very fine (<0.010 mm) clay-rich slimes simply follow the water split to the hydrocyclone underflow where it often impedes the subsequent processing performance of any downstream spirals and can result in troublesome direct dewatering of hydrocyclone underflow. the -1.0 mm fraction in goethitic iron ores is typically considered as waste. a new two-stage wet gravity separation flow sheet, referred to as the desand' process, has been designed to overcome these issues for the upgrading of low-grade clay-rich goethitic or hematite-quartz fine iron ores. the desand process is designed to treat the -1.0 mm range from -8.0 mm natural fines, to recover a -1.0 +0.038 mm higher-grade fraction by rejecting to tailings any low-grade clay-rich ultrafines and low density sand-size fine chert quartz gangue and shale.the desand process consists of wet screens with a nominal 0.7-1.0 mm cut point which direct the undersize to hydrocyclones. the hydrocyclone underflow is then fed to upcurrent classifiers where the classifier middlings is sent to spirals and classifier and spirals concentrates are then dewatered using vacuum belt filters or fine screens. the three product upcurrent classifier is employed to further deslime the hydrocyclone underflow, producing firstly a coarse final concentrate, and then a deslimed middlings for feeding to spirals as well as a 0.100 mm clay and fine quartz or banded iron formation (bif) sand in final overflow for feeding to the residue thickener. the upcurrent classifier middlings provides the spirals with a significantly cleaner feed material than traditional methods, with the end result that the spirals do not silt up with slimes and therefore can continue to run at their optimum. the upcurrent classifier and spirals form a complimentary pair, with the upcurrent classifier better able to send coarser, acceptable grade particles to concentrate and fine slimes to tailings whilst allowing the spiral to better reject coarser, subgrade low specific gravity particles. test results for the mayoko-moussondji iron project, republic of congo, using upcurrent classifier-wilfley table (simulating spirals) gave acceptable mass recovery from run-of-mine (rom) and fe recovery from hydrocyclone underflow for hemcol (6.2 per cent mass recovery from rom 43.1 per cent fe recovery) and hembif2 (5.1 per cent mass recovery from rom 22.3 per cent fe recovery) mineralisation types. the desand process also enables improved dewatering of -1.0 +0.038 mm product from a clay-rich plant feed.a number of new wet plants in the pilbara use the desand flow sheet including fmg's cloudbreak and their two christmas creek plants. many potential new applications are being explored, with new iron ore plants in india as well as those being proposed for west africa. operational experience has highlighted the importance of providing clean process water to the upcurrent classifiers as well as ongoing design improvements including increased wear life, reduced maintenance and enabling a more steady feed rate to spirals.citation:clout, j m f, 2013. beneficiation of fine iron ores using the desand process, in proceedings iron ore 2013 , pp 337-348 (the australasian institute of mining and metallurgy: melbourne).>