Microwave dephosphorisation of high phosphorus iron ores of the Aswan region, Egypt : developing a novel process for high phosphorus iron ore utilization

There is a rapidly increasing demand for iron resources with the fast-paced development of the iron and steel industry. For this reason, the iron and steel industry is facing the risk of a raw material shortage. Deposits of high-phosphorus iron ores are widely spread worldwide, but the use of these deposits in industry is limited owing to the high phosphorus content, which affects the cost of the iron making process and the quality of the produced steel. For the utilization of high phosphorus oolitic iron ore, many hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes have been proposed. However, these methods have disadvantages, such as causing environmental pollution, not being cost-effective, being overly time consuming and having low iron recovery. The aims of this present work are to study the possibility of the usage of microwave treatment to remove phosphorus from high phosphorus iron ore on a laboratory scale. This objective can be obtained through a combination of microwave pretreatment and physical separation methods. The findings into the microwave treatment of high phosphorus iron ore are quite promising. The results have indicated that microwave heating increase liberation, improves magnetic properties and reduces the processing time of iron ore. The results of ultrasound treatment showed that a significant increase in iron grade and a reduction in phosphorus content of the product can be obtained. The results indicate that microwave pretreatment should be considered as a factor significantly affecting the result of ultrasonic treatment. Depending on the sample texture and degree of phosphorus liberation, more than 59 % phosphorus removal can be obtained.