Concentration of Elazig manganiferous iron ore

The element iron (Fe) is one of the most abundant on earth, but it does not occur in nature in useful metallic form. Iron ore is the term applied to a natural iron-bearing mineral in which the content of iron is sufficient to be commercially usable. Metallic iron, from which steel is derived, must be extracted from iron ore. By definition, steel is a combination of iron with a small amount of carbon. Thousands of products having various chemical composition, forms, and sizes are made of iron and steel by casting, forging, and rolling processes. Iron and steel comprise about 95 percent of all the tonnage of metal produced annually in the United States and the world. On the average, iron and steel are by far the least expensive of the world's metals. In some applications no other materials are suitable, such as steel framing for large buildings, because of strength requirements. Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxidesand vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. Ores carrying very high quantities of hematite or magnetite (greater than ~60% iron) are known as "natural ore" or "direct shipping ore", meaning they can be fed directly into iron-making blast furnaces. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel. 98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel. Indeed, it has been argued that iron ore is "more integral to the global economy than any other commodity, except perhaps oil. Steel was known in antiquity, and may have been produced by managing bloomeries and crucibles, or iron-smelting facilities, in which they contained carbon. The earliest known production of steel are pieces of ironware excavated from an archaeological site in Anatolia (Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and are nearly 4,000 years old, dating from 1800 BC. Horace identifies steel weapons like the falcata in the Iberian Peninsula, while Noric steelwas used by the Roman military. Steels are alloys of iron and carbon, widely used in construction and other applications because of their high tensile strengths and low costs. Carbon, other elements, and inclusions within iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations that otherwise occur in the crystal lattices of iron atoms. When iron is smelted from its ore, it contains more carbon than is desirable. To become steel, it must be reprocessed to reduce the carbon to the correct amount, at which point other elements can be added. In modern facilities, this liquid is then continuously castinto long slabs or cast into ingots. Approximately 96% of steel is continuously cast, while only 4% is produced as ingots. World crude steel production growth slowed down to its lowest level of 1,2% since 2009 and increased from 1529 billion tons to 1548 billion tons. The growth came mainly from Asia and North America while crude steel production in the EU and South America decreased in 2012 compared to 2011. The role of China in world crude steel production rise continued to ease in 2012 as the crude steel production of China increased by just 3.1% to 717 million tons. Production drops in some regions like EU, CIS, South America has drawn back the world crude steel production growth rate to 1.2 % level. Among the top steelmakers, production of Japan, Germany, Brazil, Ukraine and Italy slumped compared to 2011. The sharpest production drop in 2012 was in EU 27 due to the downward trend in steel consumption as a result of the continued effects of the debt crisis on the investments and steel demand in the Europe. Crude steel production of the EU which dropped by 4.7 % compared to 2011, stayed 20 % below its production in the pre-crisis period of 2007. In addition to the EU, CIS, North America and South America are the regions which have not been able to reach their pre-crisis levels yet. Large steel producers like Japan, USA, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Italy, France and Spain have also produced less steel compared to 2007. During the last five years, highest production growth were seen in China (46%), India (43%), Turkey (39%) and South Korea (35%). With the support of those countries, global crude steel production increased by 15 % compared to the pre-crisis period. Despite production growth in 2012, average capacity utilization ratio of the world steel industry in 2012 declined to 78,8% compared to 80,7% in 2011. The declining tendency in the capacity utilization ratio of the world steel industry throughout the year from 80% level in the first quarter to 73% in December dragged down the annual capacity utilization in 2012. In this study, processing of manganese ores taken from Elazığ was investigated applying Shaking Tables, MGS (Multi Gravity Seperator), Dry Magnetic Seperator, Wet Magnetic Seperator and Flotation. Sample characterization by Chemical analyses showed that the presence of a variety of minerals mainly; Quartz, Manganite and Hematite. Chemical and mineralogical investigations of the ore were performed before the enrichment experiments. The chemical analysis revealed 39,1% Fe2O3, 13,10% MnO and 24,20% SiO2 in the ore. On the other hand, mineralogical inspection revealed that the ore consists of 30-60% hematite; 15-30% of clay minerals; 10% of minerals containing manganese; low percentage of quartz, felspate and carbonate minerals. Particle size, the angle of front side knife, the angle of back side knife and the velocity of magnetic drum were investigated in the experiments with Elazığ Topalan Uşağı region iron ores. In REMS experiments, firstly the velocity of magnetic drum is investigated in four fraction as -13+9 mm, -9+6 mm, -6+3.36 mm and -3.36+1 mm. In the fraction of -13+9 mm, the optimum velocity was found as 80 rpm consisting of 48,40% Fe2O3. In the fraction of -9+6 mm, the optimum velocity was 70 rpm. Iron was obtained with 70% efficiency and consisting of 48,40% Fe2O3. In the fraction of -6+3,36 mm, the optimum velocity was 80 rpm with the 47,70% Fe2O3 and 72,7 %efficiency. In the fraction of -3,36+1 mm; the velocity of magnetic drum was 80 rpm, and the iron was obtained with the efficiency of 81,4% and consisting of 50,85% Fe2O3. After maintaining the velocity of magnetic drum, the angle of front side knife was investigated. In -13+9 mm fraction, the optimum angle was 110 degree. Inthe fraction of -9+6 mm, the most efficiency was obtained at 100 degree. In -6+3,36 mm fraction, the optiumum angle was 110 degree. The angle of front side knife was found 110 degree as optiumum degree in 3,36+1 mm fraction. Then the angle of back side knife was investigated in the experiments. In -13+9 mm fraction the optimum angle was 70 degree while in -9+6 mm fraction it was 60 degree. In -6+3,36 mm fraction optimum back-side knife angle was 70 degree while it was observed as 50 degree in -3,36+1 mm fraction.