Utilization of Ground Sinter Feed for Oxidized Pellet Production and Its Effect on Pellet Consolidation and Metallurgical Properties

Abstract

With a growing demand for high-grade pellet feeds as well as a considerable increase in ore price, using cost-effective and high-grade sinter feeds for oxidized pellets production becomes more attractive. In this paper, one hematite concentrate from the wet grinding of a typical coarse sinter feed (GSF#) was used as raw material for manufacturing oxidized pellets. The effect of GSF# proportion in ore mixture, up to 40 wt% on roasting and metallurgical properties of oxidized pellets was investigated. Moreover, the effects of binary basicity and MgO content were also studied. The results show that in the case of natural basicity and MgO content, increasing the proportion of GSF# improves high-temperature softening–melting properties of oxidizing pellets, whereas imposes negative impacts on pellet strength as well as reduction swelling performance. The adverse effects can be eliminated by increasing binary basicity and MgO content to produce Mg-bearing fluxed pellets, which indicates the feasibility of using high proportion of ground sinter feed to manufacture high-quality oxidized pellets at low production cost.