A brief literature review of theoretical and applied works on charging and ignition of sinter mix has been made. The review considers experimental data on the influence of the distribution of the particle size of the mix and the fuel content over the height and width of the bed, and its bulk density on the consumption of solid fuel, height and gas permeability, on the productivity of sinter machines and sinter strength. The problems of sinter mix ignition, the influ-ence of throttling of the first vacuum chambers of sinter machines on the quality of sinter and gas consumption for ignition are discussed. The results of industrial studies of mix loading and ignition modes on EVRAZ KGOK sinter ma-chines are presented, which provide an increase in the bed height, an increase in the cold strength of the sinter, and a decrease in natural gas consumption for mix ignition. As a result of increasing the rotational speed of the drum feeder, the discrete descent of the mix from the mix flow stabilizer was eliminated. It has been established that due to the ex-pansion of the sinter pallets and the negative slope of their sides, there is no need to form a mix bed profile variable in height and width. The operation of sinter machines with and without separation of the loading chute from the bed has been studied. The presence of critical fluctuations of the grain size composition of the mix and the content of fuel car-bon in it along the width and height of the bed for both options of operation, due to the mode of operation of the shuttle mix distributor and fluctuations the height of the bed in the intermediate hopper, has been established. The important role of the design and mass of the mix smoother has been experimentally confirmed. The design of the throttling device of the vacuum chambers legs with manual change of the free section only as it wears out has been developed and implemented. The rational free section of the legs of the vacuum chambers is determined, which provides a minimum suction (1–2 Pa) in the chamber of the ignition hearth, and equal to 10–12%. As a result of the introduction of new technical solutions, an increase in the cold strength of the sinter by 1.09%, a decrease in natural gas consumption by 29%, and an increase in the height of the sintered charge layer up to 30 mm were achieved without reducing the productivity of sinter machines