Physical-Chemical and Pyrometallurgical Estimation of Processing of Complex Ores with Extraction of Iron, Vanadium, Titanium

The metallurgical characteristics of pellets (reducibility, strength after reaction, softening start and end temperatures), phase composition (X-ray phase analysis), and porosity were studied. Blast furnace smelting parameters were calculated using laboratory pellets with different basicities and degrees of metallization. Pellets were obtained from complex titanium-magnetite ores. The vanadium extraction of this ore into metal did not exceed 10 % during smelting of metallized pellets in an arc steelmaking furnace, but special techniques could raise this to 85 %. According to calculations from the Institute of Metallurgy of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMET UB RAS), vanadium extraction up to 80–90 % can be achieved by using high-base and partially metallized pellets. The influence of changes in the composition and metallurgical characteristics of titanomagnetite pellets with increasing basicity (especially relative to strength after reduction) should be taken into account.