Evaluating the efficiency of metallized siderite concentrate electric melting

Abstract

The Bakal siderites belong to poor, hard-to-enrich carbonate iron ores. The low content of phosphorus and non-ferrous metals makes siderites a valuable raw material for obtaining highly metallized concentrate suitable for use in steelmaking processes. Reduction of siderites in a rotating furnace at 1300 – 1350 °C followed by magnetic separation of waste rock allows to obtain a concentrate with metallization degree over 90 % and a content of waste rock of about 5 % suitable for steelmaking as raw materials. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the efficiency of the process aimed at obtaining metal from siderite ore including obtaining of highly metallized siderite concentrate in a recovery furnace, as well as its hot loading into ore-thermal furnace and melting process itself. To do this, the electric melting was calculated in the electric ore melting furnace providing for determination of a large number of parameters including the electricity consumption required for melting. As raw materials we used a highly metallized siderite concentrate (φmet = 92.3 %) containing 35 % of waste rock and, for comparison, a briquetted metallized siderite concentrate obtained from a lump concentrate in which a significant amount of waste rock was removed by wet magnetic separation. The results analysis shows that increase in concentrate temperatures from 25 to 1000 °C decreases specific energy consumption and at the same time increases the furnace productivity to values comparable to the parameters of melting briquetted concentrate. This confirms the efficiency of the developed process. To reduce the melting point of high-magnesium slag, it is proposed to use colemanite as flux.