Effect of the Morphological Types in Grinding of Iron-Ore Products

The iron-ore products are characterized in order to investigate the effect of the mineralogical features on the grinding results into pelletizing plant. The studied materials are from four mines of the different regions of Iron Quadrangle, processed by flotation, magnetic separator and produced from screening with P-80 in 8mm. In this study, we apply for the first time the novelty of electron backscatter diffraction technique for the iron ore phase identification and quantification of the microstructural parameters. The mineralogical and microstructural parameters were introduced as a base in the specific grinding test applied in the industrial routine. Each sample was characterized based on the mineral shape, pores, fractures, polycrystalline hematite, and aggregate of hematite with goethite. The test results demonstrate that there is a strong relationship between the gain of the specific surface area, represented by the K-factor, and the morphological types.