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By D. Verhulst

The Altair process digests ilmenite concentrate in high-chloride HC1 solution, with complete dissolution of titanium and iron. The Fe(III) ions are reduced to the ferrous form, and the solution is cooled to produce crystalline ferrous chloride. Titanium is transferred by solvent extraction into a purified, concentrated Ti stream, which is spray-hydrolyzed to produce TiO2 hydrate. The hydrate is further calcined with additives to generate a high-quality pigment. All the chloride streams are recycled. In the original flowsheet, the iron chloride is pyrohydrolyzed by spray roasting to regenerate 18% HCl, which is subsequently converted to HC1 gas and water by pressure-swing distillation. A modified flowsheet includes an alternative to iron chloride spray roasting, producing more concentrated HCl and decreasing the amount of solution to be distilled. Improvements in digestion, solvent extraction and final pigment production are also introduced. A 100 t/y pilot plant is being built and will test the new concepts and confirm the overall water, acid and impurity balances of the process.

Jan 1, 2006

By Y. Okita

The Goro Nickel Process, developed over a ten-year period, uses a number of novel processing steps and treats two ore types, limonite and saprolite, together. Nickel and cobalt are solubilized using a 270°C pressure acid leach in sulphuric acid, which rejects the bulk of the Fe into the leach residue as hematite particles. The leach liquor, after CCD, is aerated to oxidize any ferrous iron to the ferric form and is neutralized with limestone to precipitate iron as hydroxides together with gypsum from the neutralization of the free acid. Further neutralization with lime, together with steps to remove suspended solids, reduces the iron to trace concentrations. Nickel and cobalt are directly recovered from the low-iron leach solution by primary solvent extraction using Cyanex 301® (SXl) in a high-strength hydrochloric acid solution. Nickel is subsequently separated from cobalt in a secondary solvent extraction circuit using tri-isooctylamine. A granular nickel oxide is made by pyrohydrolysis, and this allows the recycling of hydrochloric acid to SXl. The process is currently being commercialized to produce approximately 60,000 t/y of nickel as nickel oxide granules and approximately 5,400 t/y of cobalt as cobalt carbonate. This paper describes the process development to control the Fe concentration in the SX1 feed solution.

Jan 1, 2006

By R. P. Kofluk

The nickel-cobalt sulphides produced from limonitic laterite ores by Moa Nickel S.A. in Cuba are refined at the Corefco nickel-cobalt refinery in Canada. Significant economic implications are associated with the refining of precipitated sulphides containing elevated iron contents. The Moa Nickel S.A. operations encompass laterite mining, high pressure acid leaching (H PAL), and ultimately, precipitation of a mixed sulphide product. These processes are reviewed as they pertain to the control of iron and the formation of a mixed sulphide containing nominally 55% Ni, 5% Co and 1% Fe. The contributors to the iron content of the mixed sulphide product are reviewed; the major contributors are the HPAL operation and sulphide precipitation. The precipitation of iron during sulphide precipitation is influenced by the solution acidity, the iron and copper concentrations in the feed solution, and the presence of laterite leach solids. The significance of the copper concentration of the sulphide precipitation solutions is manifested by both physical and chemical modifications of the sulphide precipitates, presumably through the formation of fine copper sulfide seed particles.

Jan 1, 2006

By G. A. Gross

"The Soviet Union has enormous reserves of iron ore in many different kinds of deposits that are widely distributed in this vast land area. The present iron ore industry is based mainly on deposits in Precambrian cherty iron-formation at Krivoy Rog, Kursk and Murmansk. Extensive reserves of both naturally enriched hematite ore and magnetite iron-formation in these areas alone could sup-ply all the domestic ore required for several hundred years.Many contact metasomatic magnetite deposits discovery in recent years in the eastern Ural Mountain belt and east of the Kusnetsov basin in Siberia are being developed, with ore reserves measured in billions of tons. Oolitic limonite-chamosite-siderite ores of Cretaceous and younger age at Kerch on the Black Sea and around the east and southern perimeter of the West Siberian basin constitute some of the largest concentrations of iron in the world. These sedimentary ores are low grade, of poor quality and difficult to beneficiate. Banded jasper magnetite and hematite iron-formation in volcanic rocks of Devonian age in Kazakhstan and along the Mongolian border are of special geoloica1 significance.Iron deposits in the Krivoy Rog and Kursk areas were examined and a large number of geologists discussed their work on deposits in many other parts of the Soviet Union during the writer's seven-week study tour of mines and research institutes in Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk in Siberia and Kiev in the Ukraine. The descriptive geology of iron deposits of useable ore and of marginal material has been well documented in the course of systematic work and a large number of scientists are studying fundamental problems on the origin and treatment of iron ore."

Jan 1, 1967

By Gordon A. Gross

During the last half century major steel industries of the world have become dependent on iron and manganese resources derived from siliceous ironformation sediments. More than two billion years ago vast amounts of iron and manganese were deposited in ironformation sediments on all continents and until recent years their genesis was considered to be a uniquely Precambrian phenomenon. Research work has demonstrated that the origin of the banded ironformations was related to major tectonic features and associated volcanogenic processes that were active throughout geological history. Similar sedimentary-tectonic environments are being explored on the seafloor where metalliferous sediments are forming today. Ironformations are now considered to be a major part of the stratafer group of stratiform metalliferous deposits. They developed in sedimentary basins in areas where deep tectonic fracturing intersected high thermal gradients in the earth?s crust and gave rise to profuse volcanism and the hydrothermal effusive discharge of metals in the vicinity of the volcanic centres. Concepts for the genesis and metamorphism of stratafer deposits as revised in the last half century have had a profound impact in the development of iron ore resources and have had a dramatic impact in the use of metallogenetic concepts for guiding exploration for other mineral resources. They are based on the tectonic history and stratigraphy in the sedimentary basins, the role of hydrothermal volcanogenic processes , as well as environmental and sedimentation factors which influence the deposition of silica, iron , and other metals that were emphasized in the past. Topics of special interest in the genesis of ironformation and stratafer deposits and for guiding mineral exploration are: biomediation in their sedimentation and genesis, the significance of metamorphism in the processing and beneficiation of iron ore and in the genesis of iron ore by natural enrichment processes, syngenetic concentrations of Mn, Ti, Cu. Zn, Pb, Ni, Co, REE, F, Ba, B, As, Hg, W and Au in ironformations and stratafer lithofacies, and the mobilization of gold and other elements by alkaline solutions during diagenesis of ironformation and other stratafer metalliferous sediments.

May 1, 2003

"For many years it has been known that large bodies of iron ore existed in Iron and Washington counties in Utah. The ore is chiefly hematite—both hard and soft—though some magnetite is found. No definite and complete estimate of the iron ore reserves of the state have been made. The U. S. Geological Survey estimated that 40,000,000 tons of ore were disclosed by development work averaging only 35 feet below the surface of the ore. The ore is found along an area about one and a half miles wide by twenty miles long, and for the most part on the eastern and southern slopes or foothills of Three Peaks, Granite Mountain and Iron Mountain. Later estimates by others have gone as high as ore in sight 164,000,000 tons, probable ore 300,000,000 tons and possible ore 1,000,000,000 tons. Whether this last estimate is too great or not there is sufficient iron ore in Utah to justify the starting of an iron industry.Two companies are now mining iron ore in Utah, the Columbia Steel Corporation and the Utah Iron Corporation. The mine of the Columbia Steel Corporation is at Iron Springs a few miles west of Cedar City. About 650 tons, of ore a day is being shipped to the blast furnace at Ironton. The ore is mined by the glory hole method. After being drilled it is blasted to the bottom of the several glory holes and is dropped through chutes into cars on the ore haulage level below. It is then hauled by electric locomotives to the crushing plant, where it is crushed to blast furnace size before going to storage bins. Some of the softer ore is brought to the chutes by Fresno scrapers."

Jan 1, 1925

By C M. Wawryk, S L. Garwin, J D. Foden

"An EXTENDED ABSTRACT is available for download. A full-length paper was not prepared for this presentation. The Batu Hijau porphyry Cu-Au deposit in south-western Sumbawa, Indonesia is an ideal natural laboratory to study the fractionation of iron isotopes in magmatic rocks that range in composition from basaltic andesite to tonalite. Intrusive rocks are associated with a porphyry system that contains well-preserved early hypogene copper mineralisation. We analysed pre-, syn- and post-mineralisation igneous intrusive rocks. We also separated magnetite, chalcopyrite and bornite from hypogene porphyry-style quartz veins, and measured the Fe-isotope ratios of samples by solution multi-collector ICP-MS. Iron isotopic composition of samples from the magmatic suite show an increasing d57Fe with increasing SiO2, supporting geochemical and textural evidence that the Batu Hijau Tonalites underwent closed system fractionation. Equilibrium and co-existing mineral textures allow the calculation of the following preliminary empirical mineral-mineral fractionation factors at 500°C for certain mineral pairs.Iron isotopes have the potential to provide geothermometric data to complement fluid inclusion data, especially where heating stages have operational limitations and where fluid boiling results in a wide variety of inclusion types that may make analysis difficult.CITATION:Wawryk, C M, Foden, J D and Garwin, S L, 2015. Iron isotope fractionation in magmatic-hydrothermal minerals – a porphyry copper case study from the Batu Hijau deposit, Sumbawa, Indonesia, in Proceedings PACRIM 2015 Congress, pp 389–396 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 18, 2015

By J. C. METCALF

MORE than 80 per cent. of the iron produced in the United States and over 30 per cent. of the world's annual production is obtained in the Lake Superior district. Though iron ore was discovered on the Marquette range in 1844, the poor transportation facilities retarded the development of this region for many years. The structure of the Lake Superior basin is essentially an east-west synclinorium with steep dips on the south side of the lake and considerably flatter ones on the north and west. The Upper Huronian series, which -is the iron-bearing one of the formation, on the south side of the lake dips north from 55' to 80°, and on the north side dips south from 8" to 200. The series has been subjected to local folding and faulting, which have influenced the development of the mining systems used.

Jan 1, 1921

By G. G. Hatch

FOLLOWING World War II there was an urgent need for the development of domestic sources of ilmenite to take care of the expanding needs of the titanium dioxide pigment industry. In addition, there was the interest by the pigment manufucturers and others in titanium metal. Prior to the war the pigment industry in the United States had obtained its major tonnage of ilmenite, analyzing 55- ?60 per cent Ti02, from India. However, as a result of the shipping situation which developed during the war, the pigment manufacturers had to consider the use of lower grades of ilmenite located on this continent .and several companies undertook extensive exploration programmes to locate and develop such orebodies. Probably the most significant deposit that was found as a result of these ?programmes was the orebody .at Allard Lake, Quebec, owned by the Quebec Iron and Titanium Corporation. This ?Company was formed in 1948 by the Kennecott Copper Corporation and the New Jersey Zinc Company to mine this ilmenite ore and treat it in electric furnaces to produce titanium dioxide slag for the pigment industry and iron for the steel industry.

Jan 1, 1956

By John J. Dwyer

As one begins to contemplate the organization of a talk with the title "Iron Ore - The Permanent State of Evolution," the main divisions appear to be the past, the present, and the future. But distaste for repetition of the present production achievements, which scarcely need additional description on this occasion, soon leads one to the conclusion that a more appropriate division of the subject is simply the past and the future . . . with emphasis on the future. We are working in the present, but it can only be understood by what has taken place in the years and decades gone by, and/or under what terms we will have to face the future. Evolution is more often thought of as a steady change - but steady change is really the product of revolutions, sometimes making headlines but often unnoticed at the time. With hindsight, we recognize the great importance of the emergence of the Bessemer converter and the open hearth and the vast influence that both have had on steel making and the changing ore demand. In this country we also see schooners opening the era for lake transportation of iron ore from Michigan to Take Erie. Later, steamships haul the ore from the Mesabi Range to the steel centers of the country. In order to take full advantage of the inland seaway, there had to be revolutions in ship design, loading and unloading facilities and channel and lock development. Full scale utilization of the resources of the Mesabi Range, itself, required parallel upheavals such as the development of new production equipment, and substitution of modern forms of energy for horsepower, and, yes, manpower, as well.

Jan 1, 1968

By JOHN R. SUMAN

IT SEEMS particularly appropriate that the Institute's Regional Meeting should be held in Minnesota this year. Whether we like it or not, we cannot help looking at things now in the light of the World War and the all-out effort we, as a nation, are making to defend our resources, our institutions, and our way of life. The ability to do this lies in large measure in the ability to forge weapons of defense-the machines of war. The basic ingredients of any defense system, or war machine, are the raw materials of industry-iron ore, providing steel for guns, shells, tanks, and warships; coal for stoking the nation's furnaces; oil to furnish power for war planes, ships, trucks, and mechanized weapons; and all the other materials that play a vital role in the operation of modern armies and navies. The tremendous requirements of full-scale defense programs are indicated by the large number of commodities that are now under priorities because the supply is not sufficient to meet both defense needs and all normal civilian consumption. But out of all these items two are of paramount importance-steel and petroleum. In this age no nation can hope to main¬tain a position as a first-class power in the world without a highly developed industry, particularly the heavy industries based on steel, and without access to the necessary resources for those industries. In 1918, 70 per cent of the iron and steel production of the United States was required for defense purposes. In 1940, 15 per cent of our iron and steel production was consumed for defense purposes, and with the acceleration of the defense program, it appears that the proportion of steel output required for defense purposes will reach 40

Jan 1, 1941

By T. H. Janes

THE POSSIBILITY of producing pig iron from iron ores of British Columbia for a west coast primary iron and steel industry has been investigated by the provincial government and by commercial interests on sever.al -occasions. The latest study is that currently under way by The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited. The Company is studying the possibility of making pig iron from the oxide calcine resulting from the roasting of pyrrhotite. tailings used in making sulphuric acid for fertilizer production at Kimberley. A comprehensive report on the subject .of establishing a primary iron and steel works in the Province, based on local iron ores, was prepared by Arthur G. Mc-Kee and Company of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1942 for the B.C. Minister of Mines and is available to interested parties. A detailed survey on the subject was also pre-pared in 1954 by Dr. G. P. Con-tractor, then .of the British Columbia Research Council. Considerable information is there-fore available on most aspects of an integrated primary iron and steel industry in British Columbia to supply the needs of the western provinces. To date, however, no basic iron industry has been established despite the .occurrence of high-grade iron ore deposits on the offshore islands and the high freight charges on iron and steel products brought into the area from Eastern Canada and overseas producers. The chief deterrent has always been the relatively small and highly diversified market available to a local steel producer. Other major fact-ors have been the lack of sufficient proven reserves of iron ore, and the difficulty of making pig iron, suit-able for steel manufacture, economically on a small scale. Technical and economic conditions have changed considerably since World War II and the establishment of a primary industry based on electric furnace production of pig iron or on one of the direct reduction processes, coupled with electric furnace steel production, may now be economically feasible.

Jan 1, 1958

By Charles McElroy White

IT is indeed an honor to have been asked to participate in the program which celebrates the seventy-fifth birthday of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. This great organization has occupied an important place in the professional and industrial life of this country-of the world. Its members have explored the far reaches of our globe and have played a great part in the discovery, extraction and utilization of the mineral resources upon which our civilization so largely depends. These engineers, together with the restless prospectors, on the one hand, and the scientists, on the other, have literally been the advance scouts of our modern way of life. As such, we owe them a deep and lasting debt of gratitude. May I, therefore, wish many happy returns to the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers and express the hope that it may long continue to be of great service, as it has been in the past. The subject assigned to me-Iron Ore and the Steel Industry-is, indeed, important, as one considers the future of our world. I shall give as few figures as possible. Pertinent statistical data are included in the tables in this chapter, which, I think, will prove interesting. Many studies of iron-ore reserves have been -published and are available; hence I shall limit myself mainly to an interpretation of these figures. The statistics data are from standard sources, including the Lake Superior Iron Ore Association, the American Iron and Steel Institute, the United States Bureau of Mines, the United States Geological Survey, the United

Jan 1, 1947

By Clyde E. Williams

MUCH has been said recently concerning the depletion of the Lake Superior iron ore re- serves. Estimates given indicate a total life of the present known reserves of twenty to thirty years. Some argue that there is no need to concern ourselves about the possible depletion of the Lake Superior iron ore supply because foreign ores can be brought in to this country at a lower price than rich agglomerated ore can be produced from the lean domestic ores. Some fear, as a result of this, a displacement of the steel business from present districts to the Atlantic seaboard. Others show that foreign ores will be brought to interior points via the projected Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway. Others believe that the South, given better freight rates, will extend its iron and steel market into northern territory.

Jan 1, 1931

By James W. Guider

Of all the technology available to the iron blast furnace operator, raw materials preparation is by far the most important. Superior raw materials have been basic to the success of the Japanese steel industry, and they are just as essential to the American steel industry in winning its competitive battle against foreign government subsidized steel imports. Therefore, the mine operator and the ore beneficiation engineer must strive to produce the highest quality raw materials possible to meet the precise demands of the modern blast furnace and steel plant.

Jan 1, 1978

By R A. M Maddever, P Jeanneau, V Flahaut

Over the entire life cycle of a mine, from early resource evaluation to the blasting of benches, the collection of geochemical data is crucial for the site operator, who must routinely and intensively drill and sample the orebody. This produces huge numbers of physical samples, in turn requiring significant cost and time for their preparation and assay. Moreover, despite best efforts, the sample recovery process is prone to error, which limits the quality of data.The pulsed neutron gamma technique has been used for decades in various industries, in particular oil logging, for its ability to provide direct identification and quantification of elemental concentrations. However, its implementation in logging tools for the mining sector is relatively recent. Built around the latest in technology for optimal spectrometric measurement, a commercial tool referred to as FastGrade™ 100 has been available for a few years and used with increasing success in the mining environment, specifically the iron ore industry, resulting in a reduction in the amount of collected samples. Relying on the physics of neutrons and gamma photons, both of which are particles that penetrate the surrounding bedrock through several tens of centimetres, such spectroscopy tools measure in real-time the composition of a much larger volume than the delimited volume of the drilled material traditionally used for geochemical mapping. Better statistics and reliability of the estimated composition increase the ability to properly and quickly measure drilled holes and allow the substituting of all or part of the sampling and assaying efforts by geochemical log data. Our paper focuses on this technology, known as pulsed fast and thermal neutron analysis (PFTNA). It reviews the main drivers for the design of such a logging tool and discusses how the fundamental characteristics of the technology, in terms of neutrons and gamma interactions, translate into interpretation of the analytical output.CITATION:Jeanneau, P, Flahaut, V and Maddever, R A M, 2017. Iron ore benefits from neutron pulsed geochemical tools, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2017, pp 387–396 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 24, 2017

By R Zhang, X Huang, M Zhou, X Lv, C Bai

Iron ore sinter accounts for a large proportion of blast furnace ferrous burden in Chinese steel mills. Depleting high-grade iron ore resources and spreading complexity of iron ores in mineralogy and morphology have made it more difficult to utilise iron ores efficiently and economically. In this paper, the physical properties of iron ore particles were characterised using mechanical sieving, laser sizing and gas adsorption. From those measurements, two physical indices (fractal dimension of the particle size distribution and surface morphological factor) are defined as important variables for optimising the granulation performance of iron ores. The moisture capacity and the contact angle of iron ore particles with water were also measured to determine the strategy of water-feed in the granulation process. It can be concluded from the experimental results that an increase in the fractal dimension of the iron ore particles will lead to a better granulation performance, while an increase in moisture capacity with a range of 12.8 ~ 14.8 per cent would increase the optimum water content where the granule packed bed achieves its best permeability. Furthermore, the optimum permeability varies inversely with the moisture capacity of the sinter mixture.CITATION:Huang, X, Lv, X, Zhang, R, Bai, C and Zhou, M, 2013. Iron ore characteristics and their application in optimising the granulation process, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2013 , pp 261-268 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 12, 2013

By Mike Smith, George Chung

"A 23 million dollar Flotation Plant has been commissioned at the Iron Ore Company of Canada in 1998. Nine OK-50 cells &re used to float silica in this 1,400 tomes per hour plant. The paper details project development, construction and operating results. This plant gives IOC the capability to produce not only high quality blast furnace pellets of varying silica, CaO and MgO levels, but also a high iron, DR grade pellet. The first activity was simply to sit down with the suppliers, Outokumpu, Wemco. GL&V and Svedala, to discuss applications and share experiences. We learnt what each supplier had to offer, what features would particularly suit this application, what options were offered, what were the materials of construction, how the equipment is maintained, which wear parts require replacement, etc., etc. We tried to learn as much about the equipment as the suppliers themselves knew. Then we tried to learn more: we contacted users and asked about any weak points, which options were worth incorporating and which items were not. We then discussed these points with the suppliers and established how potential problems might be overcome."

Jan 1, 1999

By Maurício Covcevich Bagatini, Maycon Athayde

Water consumption reduction in pellet feed operation is of paramount importance. Compared with traditional ball mills, high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) play an important role in Blaine surface area (BSA) generation to improve agglomeration properties, although stability is still a challenge. Grindability improvement of existing operation has a direct impact on the performance of the filtering and pelletizing operation. The results of this study, as a pregrinding operation, can be applied not only in new operations but also in existing ones, helping the operator control process variation in a more effective way while ore hardness increases. 

By Maurício Covcevich Bagatini, Maycon Athayde

Nowadays, the HPGR (high-pressure grinding rolls) is an intermediate step between filtering and balling in the most modern iron ore pelletizing operation. The operation debottlenecks filtering process and reduces pressure over the typical milling process to control particle size to the balling. The present study evaluated aspects of microwave application to the iron ore concentrate fed to HPGR in a bench scale unit. Iron ore concentrate was irradiated varying the microwave exposure time and grinding efficiency was evaluated. The moisture influence in the HPGR efficiency was also assessed. The pellet feed blaine surface area (BSA) improved by 300 cm2/g and % < 325# fraction by 3%. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show the formation of micro-cracks onto the particle surface induced by microwave; the effect observed helped improve the milling process performance, in addition to the moisture reduction observed due to the temperature increase.