CA2731355C - A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines - Google Patents

A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CA2731355C
CA2731355C CA2731355A CA2731355A CA2731355C CA 2731355 C CA2731355 C CA 2731355C CA 2731355 A CA2731355 A CA 2731355A CA 2731355 A CA2731355 A CA 2731355A CA 2731355 C CA2731355 C CA 2731355C
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
iron
selective
blast furnace
range
starch
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Active
Application number
CA2731355A
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
CA2731355A1 (en
Inventor
M. Manna
P. K. Banerjee
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Tata Steel Ltd
Original Assignee
Tata Steel Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Tata Steel Ltd filed Critical Tata Steel Ltd
Publication of CA2731355A1 publication Critical patent/CA2731355A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA2731355C publication Critical patent/CA2731355C/en
Active legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Classifications

    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C22METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
    • C22BPRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
    • C22B1/00Preliminary treatment of ores or scrap
    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B03SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS OR USING PNEUMATIC TABLES OR JIGS; MAGNETIC OR ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATION OF SOLID MATERIALS FROM SOLID MATERIALS OR FLUIDS; SEPARATION BY HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRIC FIELDS
    • B03DFLOTATION; DIFFERENTIAL SEDIMENTATION
    • B03D3/00Differential sedimentation
    • B03D3/06Flocculation
    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C22METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
    • C22BPRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
    • C22B3/00Extraction of metal compounds from ores or concentrates by wet processes
    • C22B3/20Treatment or purification of solutions, e.g. obtained by leaching
    • CCHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C22METALLURGY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS
    • C22BPRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS
    • C22B7/00Working up raw materials other than ores, e.g. scrap, to produce non-ferrous metals and compounds thereof; Methods of a general interest or applied to the winning of more than two metals
    • C22B7/006Wet processes

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Geochemistry & Mineralogy (AREA)
  • Geology (AREA)
  • General Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Environmental & Geological Engineering (AREA)
  • Materials Engineering (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Metallurgy (AREA)
  • Organic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Manufacture And Refinement Of Metals (AREA)

Abstract

A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines consists of processing ultra fines by selective dispersion to separate gangue materials from settled material iron and processing settled material of iron by re-dispersing with non-selective dispersant The dispersed settled material is then processed by selective flocculation with modified starch to separate concentrate iron for blast furnace feed from tailings leaving the gangue minerals in the dispersed phase. The process of separation between iron bearing minerals and the gangue minerals is carried out on the basis of surface charge conditions at a particular pH during re-dispersing with non-selective dispersant and segregating the finer particles by hydro-cyclone process for better flocculation to produce the final product that contains 68% Fe, 1%
alumina and 1% silica.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines. More particularly, the invention relates to a process of separation of iron bearing minerals from gangue minerals contained in ultra fines by selective dispersion and selective flocculation process.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART OF THE INVENTION

Large quantities of ultra fines are generated during mining and washing of iron ores. At present 11 million tons of these ultra fines have accumulated at various slime ponds. Ultra fines contain iron with high alumina and silica generated in the iron ore mines and the iron ore washing plants. These materials contain iron bearing minerals namely hematite, goethite and magnetite and the gangue materials composing of mostly clay and other alumina silicates. The fined grained clay mineral poses difficulties in beneficiation of these off grade fines to make it suitable for blast furnace feed, because the fines generated in the iron ore mines and also in the iron ore washing plants do not satisfy the stringent specifications of raw materials to be fed into the blast furnace.

The prior art discloses process of separation between two elements namely iron and alumina or iron and silica or alumina and silica from compounds where these items exist in different forms.

Therefore there exists a need to produce quality raw materials from the ultra fines to make it suitable for blast furnace feed which will be of great economical significance by separating iron from alumina and silica contained in ultra fines.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Therefore it is an object of the invention to propose a process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines which is capable of separating iron from alumina and silica present in ultra fines for blast furnace feed.

Another object of the invention is to propose a process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines which makes it environmental friendly with zero waste.

Yet another object of the invention is to propose a process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines which is capable of separating iron from ultra fines that qualifies for blast furnace feed having less than 2% alumina and silica.
2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING

Fig. 1 - shows a flow chart describing the process according to invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE
INVENTION

According to the invention, a process has been developed for producing concentrate containing very high iron with very low alumina and silica from the ultra fines containing high alumina and silica generated in the iron ore mines and the iron ore washing plants. In this process, alumina and silica are selectively dispersed whereas the iron bearing minerals are selectively flocculated under specific conditions. The final product contains more than 68 % Fe with only around 1.2% alumina and 1.3% silica from the ultra fines containing around 57% Fe, 7.51% alumina and 7.15% silica, with iron recovery from 45-75%. The tailings generated in this process can be utilized as building materials. This process is environmental friendly with zero waste.

Quality of the raw materials for the iron and steel industries plays an important role in the down stream processes. The fines generated in the iron ore mines and also in the iron ore washing plants do not satisfy the stringent specifications of raw materials to be fed into the blast furnace. It is therefore necessary to beneficiate these off grade fines to make it suitable for blast furnace feed.
In the process of upgrading this ultra fines, with low gangue minerals containing low
3 alumina and silica which would be suitable raw materials to be feed into the blast furnace. At the same time some part becomes rich in gangue materials containing high silica and alumina which may be useful for making building materials. The fine grained clay mineral poses difficulties in beneficiation Selective dispersion followed by selective flocculation has been considered to be the most suitable beneficiation process for these materials due to the fineness of the materials. The characterization studies of these ultra fines show that the particles are mostly below 35 micron and the major constituents are iron oxide, alumina, silica, alumina-silicates and iron-alumina silicates. Since the surface charge on the gangue minerals (silica and alumina-silicates) are quite different from that on iron oxide, at a particular pH, separation between iron bearing minerals and the gangue minerals can be done on the basis of surface charge conditions. In addition to the above consideration, a starch flocculant can be used to selectively agglomerate the iron bearing minerals leaving gangue minerals in the dispersed phase.

In the present invention suitable flocculation process has been developed on different grades of slime material. The concentrate will be useful feed material for iron making through blast furnace route where as tailing will be suitable feed material to manufacture building material.

The difference in surface charge of the iron bearing minerals and the gangue minerals has been utilized first to separate out some part of the gangue minerals present in the ultra fines. In the second stage, the materials from the first stage
4 have been subjected to the selective flocculation by using modified starch. By this process, value added products, the concentrate becomes the raw material for blast furnace and the tailing containing high alumina and silica becomes building materials.

As shown in figure 1, ultra fines are subjected to selective dispersion process which separates tailings with higher alumina and silica from settled material comprising mainly of iron with some tailings. This is then subjected to re-dispersing process with non selective dispersant. In the next stage, the materials from the first stage is subjected to a selective flocculation by a flocculating agent like modified starch which separate out iron rich concentrate from further left out gangue materials of clay, alumina and silica which goes out to tailing already collected. Now this concentrate of iron can be used for blast furnace feed.
The gangue materials containing high silica and alumina thus separated can be used for building material so that no wastage results out of the process.

The advantages of the process over prior art are:

1. Separation takes place among three compounds of iron, alumina and silica existing in ultra fines in various forms.

2. The final product containing 68% Fe with only round 1.2% alumina and 1.3% silica from the ultra fines is qualified as blast furnace feed. More than 2% of alumina and silica disqualifies the product as blast furnace feed.

Iron containing ultra fines is the mixture of Fe, Si,Al oxide with different particle size. The particle size of ultra fines is in the range of 100 micron to 100 nm. Both the alumina and silica levels in ultra fines are in the range of 3 to 8 wt.%.

The dispersant used includes selective and non-selective dispersant with different dosage. The selective dispersant includes polymer of 5000 to 10,000 molecular weight. The non-selective dispersant includes sodium silicate and sodium hexameta phosphate. The dosage of dispersant is in the range of 20 to 10,000 ppm. The flocculants includes different starch solution with varied dosage in the range of 20 - 10,000 ppm. The starch includes potato, wheat and maize while the starch solution used is plain as well as caustic starch solution with starch concentration in the range of 0.1 to 10 wt%. The process is feasible under varied pH condition when the range of pH is 2.5 to 11 with a preferred pH range as 8-10. The concentration of ultra fines in this process is in the range of 2 to 25 wt%
The settling time of the process also varies from 10 seconds to 20 hours. The method of mixing is carried out either by magnetic stirring, mechanical stirring or mixing the ultra fines in solution using ultra sound. The solvent includes tap water, distilled water, double distilled water.

By this process of selective dispersion and selective flocculation, the alumina and silica levels in concentrate iron has been dropped down to a level of 1 whereas both the alumina and silica level in tailing can be up to 14 wt.%.

From the present invention, various grades of rejected ultra fines can be separated out into two (1) iron rich concentrate and (ii) tailing (with rich in alumina and silica) by selective dispersion and selective flocculation process. The concentrate is most suited feed material for iron making through blast furnace rout whereas the tailing is the most suited feed material to make building material. Added advantage is that this process is environmental and eco friendly with zero waste.

Movement of different particles of oxide mineral in solution depends on degree of surface charge/zeta potential of those particles. Particles are expected to be coagulated or settled if surface charge/zeta potential becomes zero. Surface charge/zeta potential characteristics of iron bearing minerals (hematite, goethite and magnetite) are quite different from clay minerals (alumina and silica) under different conditions. This variation can be shorten or extend by varying pH
and using different chemicals. Using all this conditions alumina level in rejected ultra fines can be drop down to 4. This material is unsuitable as feed material for operation of blast furnace.

In this present invention, better charge neutralization happens when particles are made finer. Hence segregating the finer particles of iron oxide, alumina and silica by hydro cyclone process and subjecting that to selective flocculation, the final product that contains 68% Fe, around 1.2% alumina and 1.3% silica is obtained that qualifies as blast furnace feed.

Claims (9)

WE CLAIM
1. A process for producing high/qualified grade blast furnace feed from poor/disqualified grade iron ore ultra fines, comprising:
processing the ultra fines by selective dispersion to separate gangue materials from settled material comprising iron;
processing the settled material after separation of the gangue materials by re-dispersing the settled material with a non-selective dispersant;
processing the settled material after said re-dispersing by selective flocculation with modified starch to separate concentrate iron for blast furnace feed from tailings, leaving the gangue minerals in a dispersed phase;
wherein a separation between iron bearing minerals and gangue minerals is carried out on a basis of surface charge conditions at a particular pH during said re-dispersing with the non-selective dispersant, and segregating finer particles by a hydro cyclone process for better flocculation to produce a final product that contains 68% Fe, 1.2%
alumina and 1.3% silica.
2. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selective dispersant is a polymer of 5,000 to 10,000 molecular weight and the non-selective dispersant includes sodium silicate and sodium hexameta phosphate, wherein the dosage of said dispersant is in the range of 20 to 10,000 ppm.
3. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dosage of flocculants is in the range of 20 to 10,000 ppm and includes a starch solution having a concentration of said starch in the range of 0.1 to 10 wt%.
4. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the starch includes potato, wheat and maize and the starch solution is plain as well as caustic starch solution having starch concentration in the range of 0.1 to 10 wt%.
5. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pH is 8-10.
6. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentration of ultra fines in solution is in the range of 2 to 25 wt%.
7. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the settling time is in the range of seconds to 20 hours.
8. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mixing process comprises magnetic stirring, mechanical stirring or mixing the ultra fines in solution using ultra sound.
9. A process as claimed in claim 1, wherein the solvent is tap water, distilled water or double distilled water.
CA2731355A 2009-06-16 2009-07-29 A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines Active CA2731355C (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IN869KO2009 2009-06-16
IN869/KOL/2009 2009-06-16
PCT/IN2009/000434 WO2010146596A1 (en) 2009-06-16 2009-07-29 A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2731355A1 CA2731355A1 (en) 2010-12-23
CA2731355C true CA2731355C (en) 2016-08-09

Family

ID=43355958

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA2731355A Active CA2731355C (en) 2009-06-16 2009-07-29 A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines

Country Status (5)

Country Link
CN (1) CN102066588B (en)
AU (1) AU2009311053B2 (en)
CA (1) CA2731355C (en)
WO (1) WO2010146596A1 (en)
ZA (1) ZA201003824B (en)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN104762427B (en) * 2015-03-13 2017-10-31 中冶宝钢技术服务有限公司 A kind of recoverying and utilizing method of roller Slag treatment fine powder

Family Cites Families (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2423022A (en) * 1944-04-10 1947-06-24 American Cyanamid Co Froth flotation of silica from iron ore by anionic collectors
US3292780A (en) * 1964-05-04 1966-12-20 Donald W Frommer Process for improved flotation treatment of iron ores by selective flocculation
US5307938A (en) * 1992-03-16 1994-05-03 Glenn Lillmars Treatment of iron ore to increase recovery through the use of low molecular weight polyacrylate dispersants
CN1101592A (en) * 1993-10-12 1995-04-19 武汉工业大学 Kaoline selective dispersing and flocculating iron-removing technology
BR0302809A (en) * 2003-08-14 2005-03-29 Mauro Fumio Yamamoto Recycling process of blast furnace sludge or steelmaking sludge and industrial or metallurgical tailings by combining the following processes: conditioning, gravimetric concentration, cycloning, magnetic separation and flotation

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU2009311053B2 (en) 2015-05-21
CA2731355A1 (en) 2010-12-23
ZA201003824B (en) 2012-03-28
AU2009311053A1 (en) 2011-01-06
CN102066588A (en) 2011-05-18
CN102066588B (en) 2014-07-02
WO2010146596A1 (en) 2010-12-23

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
Zhang et al. Flotation of iron ores: A review
KR101576928B1 (en) Beneficiation method of high grade scheelite ore by preprocessing
KR101576927B1 (en) Beneficiation method of high grade scheelite ore
JP2012219313A (en) Process for producing titanium dioxide concentrate
KR101468731B1 (en) Beneficiation method of low grade scheelite ore
CN113731628B (en) Method for efficiently recovering cassiterite from fine-grain dip-dyed type tin polymetallic ore
US20170368480A1 (en) Selective Flocculants for Mineral Ore Benefication
Bahmani-Ghaedi et al. The effect of residual flocculants in the circulating water on dewatering of Gol-e-Gohar iron ore
CN110961244B (en) Method for pre-enriching vanadium-containing minerals in medium-fine scale graphite ores
CN105642431B (en) Method for gravity separation of sulfur concentrate from sulfur-containing coal gangue
CN111295246B (en) Method for concentrating iron ore slurry
RU2370316C1 (en) Method for arranging pulp for flotation of magnetic fraction from concentrates of sulphide copper-nickel ores containing ferromagnetic minerals of iron and precious metals
JP2013212478A (en) Method for dressing ore containing fine mineral
CA2731355C (en) A process for producing high grade blast furnace feed from poor grade iron ore ultra fines
Abd El-Rahiem Recent trends in flotation of fine particles
CN105597941A (en) Technological method for extracting iron fine powder from pyrite cinder
CA2789308C (en) A process for producing high purity fe2o3 for value-added applications including blast furnace feed for a poor-grade iron ore slime
Wyslouzil et al. Coarse and fine particle flotation
CN104968437A (en) Process to concentrate manganese ores via reverse cationic flotation of silicates
Yin et al. Flocculation of flotation tailings in presence of silicate gel and polymer
Silin et al. Study on the Characterisation and Processing of Iron Ore after Grinding by HPGR
KR20000064152A (en) Recovery rate of Sericitic clay mineral & wet refining method and process for quality improvement.
Sahin Beneficiation of low/off grade iron ore: a review
Ulusoy et al. Comparison of ultrasonically aided zinc beneficiation by mechanical flotation and column flotation cell
Motasim Beneficiation of disseminated low-grade Sudanese chromite Ore in Gedarif State at umm Saqata-Qala Elnahal

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
EEER Examination request

Effective date: 20140724