GB641738A - Improvements in or relating to the separation of iron and titanium compounds from ores containing iron and titanium - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method of producing iron and a titanium concentrate from an ore containing iron and titanium, 50 to 80 per cent of the iron compounds are converted to iron by dry reduction, the reduced material concentrated by magnetic separation and the concentrate smelted to produce metallic iron and a titanium containing slag. The ore may be reduced without sintering in a rotary kiln of the type described in Specification 636,677 using coke breeze as the reducing agent, or the reduction may be performed by a gaseous reagent, and, after wet magnetic separation, the concentrate, which has low S and P content, may be smelted in a furnace with anthracite or wood charcoal as reducing agent and the addition of sodium carbonate or lime to produce molten iron and a titanium slag which is soluble in acids. The amount of reducing agent used in the smelting may be just enough to reduce the iron to metal or slightly less than that amount, the latter case resulting in the formation of ilmenite (Feo TiO2) in the slag.