Carbothermic Reduction of Ferruginous Manganese Ore for Mn/Fe Beneficiation: Morphology Evolution and Separation Characteristic

Abstract

Abstract:In the present paper, beneficiation of Fe and Mn elements from a ferruginous manganese ore via carbothermic reduction followed by magnetic separation process was investigated in detail. The effects of the experimental parameters were systematically discussed. Iron-rich products with an Fe grade of 62.3% and 88.2% of Fe recovery, and manganese-rich product with a Mn grade of 63.7% of and 70.4% of Mn recovery were obtained, respectively, at an optimal temperature of 1100 • C, with a roasting time of 100 min, anthracite addition of 25%, milling fineness of 90% passing 0.074 mm, and a magnetic intensity of 140 A/m. Furthermore, the morphology evolution and phase transformation laws along with reduction process were revealed by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray detector (SEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and chemical phase analysis. The results demonstrated that the ferruginous manganese ore reduction can be described as follows: plate-like Fe-Mn symbiotic phase decomposition → granular MnO phase formation → fine metallic iron formation → aggregation of metallic iron → boundary development between Fe and Mn phases.

Simultaneous Selective Chlorination and Carbothermic Reduction of High-Iron Manganese Ore for the Recovery of Manganese Chloride and Metallic Iron

“…FeO generated from the step-wise carbothermic reduction of iron oxides [32] could also be chlorinated by MgCl 2 , forming FeCl 2 (Equation (3)). Fortunately, FeCl 2 can be consumed by reacting further with MnO ( Figure 1b,c), represented by Equation (4). FeO regenerated from this reaction would be subsequently reduced to metallic Fe at temperatures higher than 690 • C, as seen from Figure 1a.…”

“…Manganese has been a critical element for the production of steels, batteries, fertilizer, non-ferrous alloys, catalysts, and pigment, etc. [1][2][3] Driven by the high crude steel production rate of China, global manganese resources have been mostly consumed by the country [4,5] for the production of manganese ferroalloy, which is produced by smelting with submerged electric arc furnaces (SAF) at a high energy cost [6][7][8][9]. Cheap and high-grade manganese ores have become scarce due to its continuous consumption.…”

“…Manganese ores with high content of Fe are generally not suitable for the production of manganese ferroalloys [1,24]. Upgrading the manganese ores by iron removal using mineral beneficiation is inefficient [25], due to the complex mineral nature and high similarities in density and magnetic susceptibility of manganese and its associated iron minerals [4]. Attempts have therefore been made to amplify the difference between Mn-and Fe-bearing phases in terms of their magnetic susceptibility, by selective thermal reduction of iron oxides to form strongly magnetic Fe 3 O 4 [24,26,27].…”

Carbothermic Reduction of Ore-Coal Composite Pellets in a Tall Pellets Bed

“…There are some studies regarding the reduction of ore-coal composite pellets [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Kasai et al carried out some reduction experiments in a combustion bed packed with the composite pellets.…”