Behaviour of manganese oxides during magnetising reduction of Baharia iron ore by CO–CO 2 gas mixture

Abstract

High manganese containing iron ore samples were isothermally reduced with a CO–CO₂ gas mixture at 600–1000°C. The course of reduction was followed by a weight loss technique. The influence of reducing gas composition and temperature on the reduction kinetics was investigated. The different phases formed during reduction were identified by X-ray phase analysis, while their structures were microscopically examined. The reduced samples were magnetically tested by means of a Davis tube tester. The effect of grain size, drum speed, and cleaning conditions on the efficiency of magnetic separation was studied using a Box-Mag wet low intensity magnetic separator. The separation efficiency was determined by analysing total iron, manganese, and acid insoluble contents in both magnetic and non-magnetic fractions. Best testing results were obtained on separation of the sample reduced with 80CO–20CO₂ (vol.-%) at 800°C. The optimum grain size for magnetic separation is below 0·15 mm while that of the drum speed is 100 rev min^-1 . The cleaning of the magnetic fraction increases the iron content and decreases the manganese and acid insoluble contents.