Dear Mr. Reddy,
this is a very complex question where your hardly can expect a tailor-made answer. More than the ore minerals the gangue minerals are of control on the approach taken to recover the metallic iron. It starts with the distiction of basic and siliceous iron ore and ends up in the intergrowth of gangue and ore minerals which has to be determined by a precise mineralogical and petrological pre-examination and current study of the smelter-feed. The higher the ore grade the more the physical-chemical characteristics of Fe oxides govern the smelting process, the lower the ore grade other Fe minerals such as Fe carbonates, silicates and , in places, also sulfides play a role, while the gangue minerals deserve utmost attention. Rourkela which goes back on a German-Indian cooperation certainly has all the facilities to meet with these issues.
Last but not least the type of ore and deposit are the curcial points when it comes to the selection of methods:
(1)Magmatic iron deposits
(1)Fe Ti-Fe-(V) deposits related to mafic intrusions(high Ti)
(2)Apatite-bearing Fe oxide deposits(lowTi)
(3)Apatite-bearing Fe oxide deposits related to alkaline igneous rocks
(1)Titanomagnetite-magnetite-apatite deposits
(2)REE-apatite Fe deposit
(4)Contactmetasomatic Fe deposits (Fe skarn)
(1)Ca skarn Fe deposit
(2)Mg-(B) skarn Fe deposit
(3)Na-Cl skarn Fe deposit
(4)Fe sulfide skarn deposit
(5)Volcanic-hosted Fe (unmetamorphosed) deposits
(2)Structure-relatediron deposits
(1)Iron oxide breccias with Cu-Au-Ag-U
(2)Vein-type unconformity-related hematite deposits
(3)Thrustbound siderite veins
(3)Sedimentary iron deposits
(1)Carbonate-hosted (metasomatic) deposits)
(1)Fe-base metal-barite vein-type and replacement deposits
(2)Polymetallic siderite and magnesite replacement deposits
(2)Continental Fe deposits
(1)Eluvial –alluvial Fe placer deposits
(2)Fluvial-lacustrine and bog iron ores
(3)Claybandsand blackbands
(4)Laterite („Ferrites“), bean and karst Fe ores
(5)Residual Fe related to evaporites
(3)Marine Ironstones
(1)Oolithic ironstones(Minette-/ Wabana types)
(2)Detritaliron ore deposits
(3)Marine Fe placer deposits
(4)Pyrite deposit (gemstone-showcase)
(1)Pyrite in marls
(4)Metamorphiciron deposits
(1) Metamorphosed deposits(Algoma-type)
(2) Marine Iron Formation (Banded Iron Formation /BIF), includingsemi-precious hematite
See also the Dill (2010), the "Chessboard classification scheme.....
I wish you much success
HGD
For low grade of Iron Ore it requires much more energy to reduce it to the metallic Fe. At certain concentration the process will be uneconomical. I think it is around 50-55%. Also, a lot of slag can significantly increase the time of reduction process.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Chemical Engineering