Our iron ore pellets and fines are made from magnetite and have high iron ore content pellets at around 67 percent concentration and fines over 70 percent. This means they have lower impact on the environment than competing pellets and products such as sintered hematite fines.
Using pellets instead of sinter (slightly larger pieces of iron ore) in customers pig iron processes saves emissions at steel plants. The high concentration of iron combined with the carefully tested and balanced additives in our pellets also result in lower emissions in customers ironmaking processes.
Iron ores are the raw material used to make iron and steel. Iron ore production has significantly expanded in recent years, owing to increasing steel demands in developing countries, such as China. As the content of iron ore in deposits has deteriorated, low-grade iron ore has been processed. Iron ore concentrate is an output product from processed iron ores that have been milled (crush, grind, magnetic separation, flotation) to separate deleterious elements and produce a high-quality product. Sintering and pelletizing are economic and widely used agglomeration processes to prepare iron ore fines/iron concentrate for ironmaking use. The quality requirements of sinter and pellet, such as physical, chemical, and metallurgical specifications, depend on each ironmaking furnace, and those requirements influence the operation of the iron ore sintering and pelletizing plant. Researchers have usually focused on the effect of the chemical, physical, and mineralogical characteristics of iron ore on these steps and the consequences for sinter/pellet quality and sintering/pelletizing performance. The present Special Issue on Iron Concentrate Particles will summarize the progress achieved in the last five years.
