Per: Alinne Julia De Araujo Souza lima (Arcelormittal monlevade), Leonardo Francisco Berçot (ARCELORMITTAL MONLEVADE), Mateus Antônio Gonçalves Assis (arcelormittal monlevade), Patrícia Torres Ambrósio (arcelormittal monlevade), Thiago Públio Teixeira (ARCELORMITTAL MONLEVADE)
Abstract:
Due to the increasing of the sinter feed iron ore chemical quality deterioration, used in the sintering process, the companies have introduced iron ore concentrate to improve the quality of the material. This improvement in chemical composition occurs in detriment of the quality of the grain size, which tends to be smaller in size. Iron ore with finer grain size impacts negatively the cold and hot agglomeration process and, consequently, the sinter plant productivity once the sintering bed permeability controls the flame front speed and thus the productivity. In this study, it has been investigated the quality differences between a hematite iron ore (in sinter feed granulometry) and an itabirite concentrate (in pellet feed granulometry), in terms of chemistry, granulometry, mineralogy and water holding. Additionally, the results of iron ore concentrate consumption in industrial scale at ArcelorMittal Monlevade's sintering process were presented. Overall, the itabirite concentrate has a positive impact on the ore's chemical quality, but due to its small size, it posed challenges in the cold agglomeration process, resulting in increased consumption of lime as a binder to minimize productivity losses.