Preparation of metallic iron powder from pyrite cinder by carbothermic reduction and magnetic separation

Abstract

The reduction and magnetic separation procedure of pyrite cinder in the presence of a borax additive was performed for the preparation of reduced powder. The effects of borax dosage, reduction temperature, reduction time and grinding fineness were investigated. The results show that when pyrite cinder briquettes with 5% borax were pre-oxidized at 1050 °C for 10 min, and reduced at 1050 °C for 80 min, with the grinding fineness (<0.44 mm) passing 81%, the iron recovery was 91.71% and the iron grade of the magnetic concentrate was 92.98%. In addition, the microstructures of the products were analyzed by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and mineralography, and the products were also studied by the X-ray powder diffraction technique (XRD) to investigate the mechanism; the results show that the borax additive was approved as a good additive to improve the separation of iron and gangue.