A new approach for extraction of Nb from Nb-bearing complex iron ore, found in North-West China, is proposed. Selective reduction of the complex iron oxides by CO-CO_2 gas mixture was conducted, and the reduced metallic Fe was magnetically separated from the Nb-bearing gangue residue. The Nb-rich product was leached with HCl to remove P. A highly concentrated Nb-bearing product with Nb/Fe=6, Nb/P=12 might be possible to make commercial grade of 60-65 percent Nb ferroniobium.
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