Treatment of residues from the iron mining industry

The raw materials for the production of titanium and ferrotitanium are natural occurring ores or slags which are rich in titanium. For the fabrication of titanium tetrachloride rutile, brookite and anatase are used. Ilmenite is the primary material for the production of titanium rich slags. To increase the titanium content, the ilmenite is reduced in different processes where a titanium rich slag and crude iron are generated. During this project some experiments were conducted with carbon and hydrogen as a reducing agent. The aim of the investigations was to separate the iron and increase the titanium content in a different phase. In following processing steps, metallic titanium or pure titanium dioxide were produced with the titanium rich phase as a raw material. Several preliminary tests were done to determine the behavior of titanium at higher temperatures with different reduction agents. An induction furnace and a tube furnace were used for the main experiments. The reduced metal and the slag were analyzed using XRF and REM methods, after which the results were interpreted.