Separation of P Phase and Fe Phase in High Phosphorus Oolitic Iron Ore by Ultrafine Grinding and Gaseous Reduction in a Rotary Furnace

Due to the oolitic structure of the high phosphorus iron ore and the closely wrapping of apatite and hematite phases, an approach using jet mill was utilized to grind the ore to ultrafine 0.01 to 0.001 mm, which realizes the dissociation of apatite phase and hematite phase. Then in a laboratory scale rotary furnace, high phosphorus ores of different sizes were reduced by reducing gas at sub-melting point temperatures (973 to 1173 K [700 to 900 °C]). In the rotating inclined reactor, the ore particles reacted with the reducing gas coming from the opposite direction in a rolling and discrete state, which greatly improved the kinetic conditions. In this study, the reaction rate increases significantly with the decrease of particle size. For the ultrafine high phosphorus iron ores, the metallization ratio can reach 83.91 to 97.32 pct, but only 33.24 to 40.22 pct for powders with the size of 0.13 to 0.15 mm. The reduced particles maintained their original sizes, without the presence of sintering phenomenon or iron whisker. Hence, two kinds of products were easily obtained by magnetic separation: the iron product with 91.42 wt pct of Fe and 0.19 wt pct of P, and the gangue product with 13.77 wt pct of Fe and 2.32 wt pct of P.