Beneficiation of low-grade iron ores

The Government of India highlighted, processing and utilization of iron ore fines as pre-requisite to meet the domestic raw material requirements for the projected 110 million tonnes of domestic steel production by the year 2019-20 in the National Steel Policy announced in November 2005. This would require 190 million tonnes of iron ore. The depletion of high grade iron ore and increased generation of fines during mining and handling and demand for high grade iron orefines for export has necessitated the processing of low to medium grade fines. The R&D efforts undertaken at NML-Madras Centre, India in this
direction have been highlighted. Beneficiation of iron ores in general and column flotation in particular are highlighted in this paper. This would also mitigate the environmental problem created by the dumping of huge quantities of low and medium grade iron orefines. Three case studies involving iron ore fines of varying silica and alumina content from Goa and Kudremukh regions of India have been discussed. The results clearly indicate the feasibility and significance of flotation process in treating the fines to obtain marketable concentrates.