A method of producing liquid iron from fine ore and fine coal in a series of cyclones is proposed. Operating cost savings are calculated to be 42% compared with a small blast furnace and capital cost savings 23%. Established ironmaking methods rely on lumpy or pelletised ore and lump coal or natural gas as the reductant and fuel. Large reserves of fine ore have thus been largely untapped offering an attractive low cost raw material for iron production if a process capable of exploiting them can be developed. Several processes for producing sponge iron or molten iron from fine ore are presently under development, some having reached the prototype stage. Most of these process use natural gas as the reductant and produce a solid product, eg Finmet, Circored and the iron carbide process. One such process using coal as the reductant is Circofer which is at the pilot development stage (Table 1).
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