Abstract: Niobium and tantalum are very important rare and precious metals.China is rich in niobium and tantalum resources,but the low grade,complex paragenetic minerals,and high difficulty in development and utilization lead to the difficulty in niobium and tantalum processing and smelting.At present,niobium and tantalum separation method is mainly gravity separation combined with other processes to improve the roughing efficiency;magnetic separation,gravity separation,electric separation,flotation,chemical separation and other processes are used for cleaning.For fine-grained tantalum and niobium minerals,the flotation process has a better separation effect;for impurity removal of concentrate,the electric separation process has a better separation effect;for low-grade refractory tantalum and niobium ores,the chemical separation process has a better separation effect.

Key words: Niobium tantalum ore, Gravity separation, Magnetic separation, Electric separation, Flotation, Combined beneficiation