LEAN IRON ORE BENEFICIATION IN INDIA

摘要

India is endowed with large reserves of reasonably rich iron ore. However, the high target set for steelproduction in near future would boost the domestic demand of iron ore to around 200 million tonesper year or more. In addition, a sizeable export commitment will have to be met. This would resultin fast depletion of reserves of high grade material. It is therefore imperative to start exploring theways and means of producing rich concentrate utilising relatively poorer grade of ore. Fortunately,the process has already been initiated in the country.Current practice in India is to selectively raise the iron ore having average Fe content of 62 per cent.This necessitates adopting about 58 per cent Fe cut-off while mining, leaving poorer grade materiallocked in situ or discarded as waste. Besides, large quantity of waste are generated every year inprocess of desliming the ore. The wastes in slurry form are impounded in tailings pond.The above low grade materials/slimes contain substantial iron values. A large portion of thesame could be recovered adopting suitable process. The concentrate thus produced could form anappropriate substitute of the rich ore. This will enable to increase the reserve base, improve economyof operation and alleviate environment related problems due to slime disposal to a large extent.Many iron ore producers in India are initiating steps to utilise the low grade resources andexamining techno-economic viability for up gradation of lean iron ore keeping in view the currentmarket situation.In the above backdrop this paper discusses the beginning of an era of lean iron ore beneficiation inIndia. The past practices and the future trend of process technology that could be adopted to meetthe requirements in this country are also discussed.