According to process equipment supplier CDE Asia, a new iron-ore washing plant installed for Monnet Ispat & Energy (MIEL) in Raigarh, India, has provided efficiency gains resulting from effective removal of unwanted fines and slimes.
Before installation of the new plant, the primary problem facing MIEL was the variation in feed material that was sourced from a variety of mines; high fines content in the feed was particularly troublesome. MIEL invested in the plant after CDE Asia conducted extensive testing of the feed material to determine the actual quality improvements that could be achieved. Testing was conducted at CDE Asia’s testing facilities.
Following installation, the new washing plant reportedly removes all of the low-grade fines and slimes, resulting in a higher quality ore. This not only increases efficiency in the kilns but delivers a washed ore product that MIEL can sell to export markets at a premium price.
“We were able to demonstrate to Monnet Ispat & Energy that they would enjoy considerable benefits from the installation of our washing plant in the quality of the material processed, ability to handle variation in ore quality, segregation of feed material for different kilns and, of course, reduction of contaminants,” said Dr. A. Bandyopadhyay, president of technology, CDE Asia.
The new processing plant provides a 5- to 25-mm product for the DRI plant, a 2- to 5-mm product and a 0.075- to 2-mm product. After washing of the iron ore fines through the CDE Evowash system, waste water is delivered to an Aquacycle thickener that enables approximately 90% of process water used to be recycled—significantly reducing the volume of fresh water required to feed the washing plant.
Prior to the introduction of the CDE washing plant, the minus 5-mm product contained 7% minus 75-micron material which was the major cause of the inefficiencies encountered by MIEL in its steelmaking processes. The new plant has reduced this level to 1.5%, which not only has improved the Fe grade of the feed material and extended campaign life by 10%, but has also resulted in improved metallization.
MIEL, the flagship company of the Monnet Group, is India’s second largest sponge iron producer with annual output of 1 million mt/y. The company is in the process of expanding the capacity of its steel and sponge iron facilities and setting up greenfield steel plants in Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) and Angul (Orissa) which would lift total steel capacity to 3 million mt/y and sponge iron to 2.3 million mt/y.
CDE Asia, an Indian company founded in 2007, is a partnership of CDE Global (UK) and the Bhartia family. It is headquartered in Kolkata, India.
