BenefIciation of an Oolitic-Iron ORE by Magnetization Roasting and Magnetic Separation

Low-grade iron ores contain many impurities and are difficult to upgrade to make appropriate concentrates for the blast furnace (BF) or direct reduction (DR) technologies. In this study, the beneficiation of an Oolitic-iron ore (containing 45.46wt% Fe2O3) with magnetization roasting by non-coking coal (containing 62.1wt% fixed carbon) under a stream of argon gas was investigated. Then, a 2500 Gaussian magnet was used for dry magnetic separation method. The effects of roasting time, ore particle size and reaction temperature on the amount of separated part and grade of the product were examined. It was found out that the hematite inside of ore could almost be completely converted into magnetite by stoichiometric ratio of coal to ore at the roasting temperature of 625 °C for 25 min. Under the optimum condition, a high amount of magnetic part of the product (72.22 wt%) with a grade of 92.7% was separated. The most important point in this process was prevention of reduced ore from re-oxidation reaction by controlling roasting atmosphere, time and temperature. In addition, different analytical methods such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to investigate and expound the results.