Solar glass demands a very low iron oxide content because iron absorbs light. Sand that is perfectly acceptable for container glass or construction use can fall short of photovoltaic specifications, which is why quartz producers treat Fe₂O₃ as the number that decides whether a deposit is sellable.
Iron in quartz sits in three places: as liberated magnetic grains, as weakly magnetic mineral inclusions, and as staining on the surface of the grains. Mechanical screening removes only the first, which is why magnetic separation — particularly high-gradient separation — is the step that moves the material into solar grade.
High-gradient electromagnetic separators build a strong field across a matrix, so they capture the weakly magnetic fraction that ordinary low-intensity magnets leave behind. Because the field is adjustable, the same machine can be tuned as the feed changes between seams or between blended stockpiles.
The video below shows silica sand running through the separator. Watching the discharge is often the fastest way to judge whether a given feed will respond, and we pair it with a free sample test on your own sand before any discussion of machine size.
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Send us your material and target — we run a free sample test and return the iron-reduction result before you commit to a machine.