2016-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2016 Volume 1: D'Abreu Intl. Symp. / Iron and Steel Making
| Editors: | Kongoli F, Noldin JH, Takano C, Lins F, Gomez Marroquin MC, Contrucci M |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2016 |
| Pages: | 320 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-37-9 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Current challenges on iron ore beneficiation: reaching the right quality for difficult ores in difficult times
Armando Araujo1;1ARCELORMITTAL, Maizieres-les-Metz, France;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 292
Topic: 2
Abstract:
The last 10 years have been quite remarkable for the iron ore industry. The rate of increase of iron ore prices experienced before and during the world economic crisis of 2008-2009 was never seen before. On the other hand, the fast fall of the value of this same commodity in the last couple of years was also unprecedented. Seaborne iron ore market reached levels well above the most optimistic predictions made at the turn of the millennium. New projects of extremely high capacity were commissioned and several prospective new projects were in the pipeline, but many of these latter ones failed to be completed on time to get the high price scenario. The answer to the high demand was clearly the development of projects with very high capacities, high level of automation and control and optimized capital investment like modularization, quick construction and fast ramp-up. However, big projects are inherently very costly in terms of environmental licencing. Finding the compromise of short times from discovery to production caused difficulties and delayed the commissioning of some very high quality iron ore projects. With high prices, several other not so big projects, based on resources that could not be classified as world class, were also developed. Iron ores of medium to good quality derived from these medium sized projects made their way in the hunger seaborne market. These projects, based on resources with some intrinsic difficulties opened the way to increased beneficiation schemes, transforming low quality run-of –mines into acceptable and marketable iron ores. Taking into consideration the new scenario, of low prices and lower demand, the lessons learnt while developing the medium size resources should be utilized to navigate in the current market. Because of their smaller environmental footprints, smaller scale deposits with the proper application of available technology may represent the answer for the near future.