After ore undergoes beneficiation, most of the gangue and impurities are removed, resulting in a product enriched with valuable minerals called concentrate. Concentrate is the final product of a beneficiation plant, sometimes also called final concentrate, and is generally used as a raw material for smelting. Final concentrate must meet national standards for both its main components and impurities to be considered a qualified concentrate.
The intermediate product obtained during beneficiation is called middlings. The content of valuable components in middlings generally falls between that of concentrate and tailings. During beneficiation, middlings generally need to be returned to a suitable processing location or processed separately.
After beneficiation, the main components of the raw ore are enriched in the concentrate. In some cases, after comprehensive processing, minor components or other associated metals of the ore are also recovered. Therefore, the remaining product contains very low levels of valuable components; this part is called tailings (or final tailings). It should be noted that tailings still contain valuable components that are difficult to extract due to current technological limitations, but may potentially become recycled raw materials in the future. Therefore, tailings are generally stored in tailings ponds.