Pilot Study on a New Conveyor Bed Magnetization Roasting Process for Efficient Iron Extraction from Low-Grade Siderite

Realizing the large-scale development and utilization of siderite, a difficult iron ore reserve, has great practical significance in ensuring the supply of iron ore resources. Therefore, a new in-house conveyor bed magnetization roasting-dry cooling process was pilot-tested using low-grade siderite from the Daxigou iron ore mine. A two-stage weak magnetic separation method was used for a beneficiation test to investigate the influence of temperature and CO content on the magnetization of siderite. At 600 degrees C and 800 degrees C under suspension, iron minerals were converted into magnetite with an effective 3-5 s residence time. Furthermore, at 600 degrees C and 750 degrees C, increasing the calcination temperature increased the iron grade and the concentrate recovery rate. However, calcination at temperatures >750 degrees C resulted in a slight decrease in the iron grade and recovery rate of the concentrate. 61.50% Fe grade and 80.30% concentrate recovery rate were obtained under 750 degrees C from magnetization roasting. Magnetization roasting in a reducing atmosphere provides mainly magnetite as the roasted ore, and increased CO content can efficiently promote this effect. At 700-780 degrees C and when the CO content was increased to more than 3 wt.%, the improvement of the roasting effect was very limited. Rapid cooling of the roasted ore using a mixture of circulating exhaust gas and air could prevent considerable oxidation of the magnetic ferrous material. Therefore, the preferred process conditions are 700-780 degrees C with a CO content range of 1-3%. It provided a concentrate iron grade of 59.27-61.50% and a recovery rate of 78.32-80.30%. The results of this study provide a reference for the development of conveyor bed magnetization technology, process design, and production control.

Automated summary

Realizing the large-scale development and utilization of siderite, a difficult iron ore reserve, has great practical significance in ensuring the supply of iron ore resources. Therefore, a new in-house conveyor bed magnetization roasting-dry cooling process was pilot-tested using low-grade siderite from the Daxigou iron ore mine.