Feasibility Studies for Quality Enrichment of Siliceous… 25

Feasibility Studies for Quality Enrichment of Siliceous

Hematite Iron Ore
M.P. Srivastava, S.K. Mukherjee, S.K. Pan, S.K. Sinha and L. Parthasarathy
RDCIS, SAIL, Ranchi

ABSTRACT: Hematite iron ore reserve in India is 45% of the 23.6 billion tons total reserves .If we go by our
National Steel Policy projections, hematite iron ore of India would not last more than 40 years. In order to
explore the possibility of upgrading other types of iron ore, laboratory investigations were carried out for the
beneficiation of low grade iron ore and Banded Hematite Quartzite (BHQ) ore.
Beneficiation studies were done on samples of low grade siliceous iron ore from Dalli mines, a captive mine
for Bhilai Steel Plant and also BHQ ore of Karnataka region. Iron ore assaying 55.5% Fe could be upgraded
to more than 65% Fe with around 48% yield. BHQ ore assaying 43.4% Fe, could also be improved to 61.3%
Fe with 51.7% yield using the process flow sheet developed.

1. INTRODUCTION steel would require 190 million tons of iron ore.

Iron ore reserves and resources estimated on
the United Nations Framework Classification
(UNFC) basis as on 1.4.2000 are about 12,906
million tons of hematite ore and 10,628
million tons of magnetite ores. Percentage of
lumps and fines are 42 and 34% of the total
deposit respectively. High grade iron ore is
about 10% of the total reserve. Taking into
account all the grades of iron ore, about 30%
has less than 62% Fe. Quality norms of steel
plants in India generally does not permit use of
such ores (less than 62% Fe) for hot metal
production. Either it has to be blended with
high grade ore or beneficiated to improve its
quality. Hematite ore reserves are estimated at
55% cut off, but in practice, run of mine ore
less than 58% are discarded as rejects. During
the course of mining, huge quantity of iron
with less than 58% Fe are discarded and
dumped .These need to be beneficiated for
quality improvement and use in BF, sintering
or pellet preparation.
National Steel Policy, declared by
Government of India in November 2005
envisages a long term target of 110 million
tons of domestic steel production by the year
2019–20. Production of 110 million tons of
Capacity of sponge iron industry will increase from
the current 13 Mt to 38 Mt by 2019–’20 and would
require about 60 Mt of high grade iron ore. With
these enhanced rate of consumption (350 Mt/yr)
hematite ore reserve would sustain for about another
40 years. In order to ensure longer period of ore
availability, we should also plan to use low grade
iron ores after beneficiation and explore the techno-
economic viability of utilizing magnetite iron ores.
Product obtained from low grade iron ore and
magnetite ore would be high grade concentrate
suitable for sinter or pellet making.
In SAIL mines about 50 Mt of dumped fines are
lying in various mines site with Fe % in the range
55–60%. These low-grade ores are being dumped at
mines site during mining to get better grade iron ores
because existing circuit would not produce iron ores
to meet the stringent quality norm of ores set by the
blast furnaces for iron production.
Dalli mines of Bhilai steel plant has more than 8
Mt of low grade (about 55–56% Fe) hematite iron
ore fines in various dumps. In view of enhanced
production of hot metal by Bhilai steel plant in near
future, these dumped fines could become a potential
source of blast furnace burden feed. Presently, the
silica content in iron ore fines of Dalli mines has
gone up to 4.46% from a level of 3.3% (Fig. 1)
26  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)
Fig.1: Quality of iron ore fines of Dalli mines Canada & Cleaveland Cliff Inc., Canada (Magnetite
SiO2 Al2O3 ore : Fe 30–41%) are producing high grade
5 concentrate by a process circuit consisting of Heavy
4.46
Media Separation, High Intensity Magnetic
4 3.98 4.02
Separation, Hydrocyclone & Flotation Cells. Similar
Silica,Alumina (%)

3.86
3.57 results have been obtained by the Samarco Minercao
3
3.32
Plant of Brazil. The low grade iron ore (Itabirite)
2.65 2.58
containing Hematite ore with average Fe :50% is
2.48
2.38 2.37
2.25 also beneficiated using cyclone & flotation cells to
2
produce a concentrate assaying Fe : 66.5% – 67.5%
& SiO2 : 1.5 – 2.5%. Magnetite ores (Fe : 29.1% and
1
2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 SiO2 : 56.1% ) in North East China are being
Year
processed to produce a concentrate with Fe:67.2%
.(Poulin et al. 2003).
Fig. 1

Laboratory investigation carried out with 3. EXPERIMENTAL WORK

Dalli dumped fines indicate that it can be
upgraded to a product assaying 2.4% SiO2 and 3.1 Chemical and Petrographic Analysis
66% Fe. The beneficiated product with low
silica can be mixed with ore fines to reduce the 500 kg sample received from Dalli mines was
present level of silica in fines. Similar properly homogenized in the laboratory. After
flowsheet was developed for ore from mixing, representative sample was drawn by coning
Karnataka region. Quality was upgraded from & quartering. The sample was subjected to wet sieve
43.4% to more than 61% Fe with 51.7% yield. analysis. The size wise chemical analysis is provided
in Table 1. The composite sample analysed Fe–55%,
SiO2–6.6% Al2O3–3.6%. In addition, certain
2. PROCESSING OF LOW GRADE analytical procedure like XRD (X Ray Diffraction)
IRON ORE to quantify the percentage of different phases of iron
ore and DTA/TG (Differential Thermal Analysis and
2.1 Indian Scenario Thermo-Gravimetry) analysis for indication of LOI
The iron ores from Kudremukh which are (Loss on ignition) were also done. Based on the
magnetite with some percentage of hematite information revealed by these characterization
are processed to produce concentrate with Fe experimental program was developed
68% from a feed of 38% with an yield of
about 30–33%. (Chatterjee et al. 2003). It has Table 1: Size wise Chemical Analysis
been reported that Kanjamalai Magnetite- Weight, SiO2
Size, mm Fe % Al2O3%
Quartzite iron ore deposit near Salem, can be % %
beneficiated to 66% Fe from 35% Fe with 35% +8 7.67 60.87 4.38 2.29
yield. (FR 1996)) Laboratory inve- –8+6 8.05 61.10 3.82 2.15
stigation at RDCIS for iron ore from Karnataka –6+3 8.93 62.92 3.15 1.89
region also indicate that the BHQ Ore and –3+1 22.22 59.74 4.48 2.48
Banded Magnetite Quartzite(BMQ) Ores can –1+0.15 23.98 57.86 5.42 2.54
–0.15+0.075 8.00 54.34 7.33 3.76
also be upgraded to more than 62% Fe.
–0.075+0.04 4.52 47.20 10.50 4.08
–0.045+0.35 1.08 46.77 10.45 4.67
2.2 Global Scenario –0.35 15.55 43.75 11.71 9.35
Total 100 56.14 6.21 3.67
Channar& Paraburdo mines Australia
(Magnetite ore : Fe 55–58%), Empore Mine,
North America (Magnetite Fe–34%), IOC, 3.2 Jigging Test on Iron Ore Fines
Feasibility Studies for Quality Enrichment of Siliceous…
Jig tests were conducted on different size
fractions to see the beneficiation amenability
potential of jigs. The samples were divided
into three lots, i.e., –2+0.2 mm, –6+0.2 mm
and –10+2 mm fraction. Jigs, as such, requires
close size range as feed. Since the target was
65% Fe in the final product, it was not
possible that jig could achieve that in one
single pass while treating –10+1 mm or –
10+0.2 mm fractions. Hence, the logic of
dividing the jig feed into three fractions was
adopted. The optimized jig results are
presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Summary of the Jig Test
Size Feed Product yiel
Fraction Quality,% Quality,% d Laboratory investigations were also carried out
–10+2 Fe– 60.0% Fe–63.44% 60%
mm Al2O3–2.27% Al2O3–1.42%
–6+0.2 Fe–58.46% Fe–62.8% 61%
mm Al2O3–2.5% Al2O3–1.6%
–2+0.2 Fe–53.5% Fe–60.4% 54%
mm Al2O3–3.8% Al2O3–2.6%
It can be seen that while treating –10+2
mm in jigs required upgradation target (65%
Fe) is not achieved. For a feed in the size range
–6 + 0.2 mm having 58.46% Fe & 2.5% Al2O3
resulted in 62.8% Fe, 1.6% Al2O3 with 61%
yield. This could become a sinter feed
material. Maximum up gradation of around
60% Fe was achieved in the size range –2 +
0.2 mm with 54% yield
As desired quality of the product could
not be obtained by separating into different
size fraction hence entire sample was ground
and then subjected to various beneficiation
processes.
3.3 Process Circuit Development
Dalli dumped fines was wet screened at 1 mm,
followed by grinding of +1mm fraction to
below 0.5 mm. The whole –1 mm fraction
(after grinding) was treated in conventional
hydro-cyclone. Cyclone underflow resulted in
Fe quality improvement to 58% Fe from feed
27
of 55%. The yield at this stage was 80%. Cyclone
underflow was then subjected to stub cyclone
thereby resulting in Fe upgradation to 60–61% Fe.
The total yield at this stage was 70–72%. The stub
cyclone underflow, when treated in WHIMS resulted
in product quality having in>65% Fe. The overall
yield by this scheme is around 50%. XRD showed
the prominence of the hematite as the main iron
bearing phase main and quartz as main gangue
phase. LOI of the sample as determined from
DTA/TG plot is also low at around 3.5%.The
optimized test results in terms of Fe value at various
stages of test work is depicted in Figure 2 indicating
Fe up-gradation to more than 66% with around 50%
recovery. Silica (SiO2) was also simultaneously
reduced from 6.4% to 2.47% in final product.
with Banded Hematite Quartzite (BHQ) iron ore
having Fe : 43.4% and SiO2 : 23.79%. As the ore was
having very low iron content, entire BHQ ore was
crushed to less than 0.5mm. Process circuit
developed envisages cyclone treatment followed by
two stage treatment in WHIMS. Product obtained by
this circuit assayed Fe : 61.26%, SiO2 : 5.3% and
Al2O3 : 1.33% with about 52% yield (Fig. 3).
4. CONCLUSIONS
With the enhanced steel production as envisaged in
the National Steel Policy, hematite iron ore
availability in the country will not last long. In
order to ensure longer period of ore availability, it is
very important that we should plan to use low grade
BHQ & BMQ iron ores after beneficiation.
The laboratory investigations carried out with
Dalli dumped fines indicate that low grade ores with
Fe:55.5%,SiO2:6.4% & Al2O3:3.67% can be
upgraded to a product with Fe:66.2%,SiO2: 2.47%
Al2O3: 1.44% with about 48% recovery.
Technically, it is possible to enhance the quality
of low grade as well as BHQ or BMQ iron ores to an
acceptable grade. Techno-economics has to be
worked out for such projects depending upon
logistics, scale of operation and location.
28  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)

-10 mm Legend

Ball Mill (-0.5 mm) Yield% Fe%

100 55.5 SiO2% Al2O3%

6.40 3.67
O/F (Reject)
Cyclone
20 46.9
80 57.65
U/F 10.24 6.27
5.54 3.02

O/F (Reject)
Stub-Cyclone
20 50.82
60 59.92
Product 7.44 5.46
4.49 2.2
Non-Magnetic Reject
WHIMS
12 32.33

14.64 5.24 52 45.05

48 66.2
10.18 5.72
2.47 1.44
Final Final Tails

Fig. 2: Optimised flowsheet for beneficiation of low grade iron ore

Feasibility Studies for Quality Enrichment of Siliceous… 29
BHQ ORE
Fe SiO2 Al2O3 P2O5 CaO
43.4 23.8 1.5 1.3 2.2

CYCLONE
Fe SiO2 Al2O3 P2O5 CaO
85.5% 46.9 19.0 1.4 0.74 1.6
WHIMS-I

58.4% Fe SiO2 Al2O3 P2O5 CaO

56.0 9.4 1.4 0.65 1.1
WHIMS-II
Fe SiO2 Al2O3 P2O5 CaO
51.7% 61.3 5.3 1.3 0.34 0.43

Fig. 3: Beneficiation test results of BHQ Iron ore

REFERENCES [2] Poulin, L., Gendrean, G. & Sochukey, M., Report by

[1] Chatterjee, A. and Murty, V.G.K., Trends in
the beneficiation of iron ore and the scenario
in Tata Steel. Mineral Processing &
Engineering, 2003 IICh. E, Kolkata.
Met-Chem. Canada Inc.-July 2003.
[3] Techno-economic feasibility report on development
of iron ore deposit at Kaijama\alai. Vol. 1, May
1996.