The presentation discusses recent growth of the Australian iron ore industry and the place of beneficiation in that growth.The changes in the beneficiation processes utilised since the start of the industry in 1966 are discussed in four stages: first generation plants - heavy media processes second generation plants - jigs and spiral processes third generation plants - washing and desliming plants fourth generation plants - scrubbing and wet screening and spiral plants - for high clay content ores._x000D_
The lessons learnt during this development over 30 years are analysed. One interesting point is that priority has been given in design to operability rather than technical efficiency, possibly because of difficulty experienced with the first plants. Design requirement has at times been to rduce impurity level as well as upgrade lower grade ores and in some cases to improve handleability.The two currently operating low-grade magnetite ore plants are described and new entrants into the magnetite industry are considered. Plant complexity and scale of these new plants is considerably greater than the original magnetite plant built in 1966 and likely developments and growth in this sector are examined._x000D_
*This is an abstract only. No full paper was prepared for this presentation.* CITATION:Miller, D J, 2013. Iron ore beneficiation in Australia, in Proceedings MetPlant 2013, p 583 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).