Abstract:
The SAF (submerged arc furnace) process is most widely used for industrial production of high carbon ferromanganese. Most plants use ore feed in the form of lump ore (−75 mm +6 mm), but long term supply is limited, and large quantities of ore fines are generated in ore mineral processing. Therefore development of alternative processes using ore fines (−10 mm) is important. The AlloyStream process is one such process developed to use a feed material mixture of fine ore, coal and flux. This process development provided a unique opportunity to correlate MnO reduction process theory to pilot plant production practice represented in minerlogical observations from furnace heap samples.