A Review of Comprehensive Utilization of High-Iron Red Mud of China

With the increasing requirement of environmental protection, the treatment of red mud has become a more and more important issue. Depending on the various iron contents, red mud can be divided into low-iron red mud and high-iron red mud. This paper reviews the comprehensive utilization of high-iron red mud of China. In particular, this paper reviews the methods for iron recovery from red mud: physical recovery, hydrometal-lurgical recovery and pyrometallurgical recovery. This paper then introduces a new technique proposed by Northeastern University of China which can achieve high iron recovery and additional values from the molten slag. It is much preferred over the current methods. This method eliminates the pelletizing and sintering processes in blast furnace ironmaking shortening the technological process and saves energy greatly. The information should help to improve the future large-scale, high-value and zero waste utilization of red mud.