Improvement in Cr:Fe Ratio of Indian Chromite Ore for Ferro Chrome Production

About 40% of the Indian chromite ore reserves are suitable for metallurgical purpose due to higher Cr:Fe rat io. The present investigation emphasized on the liberation and beneficiation characteristics of Indian chromite oreto improve the Cr : Fe ratio . The off grade chro mite samp le ofSukinda region, India analysed 40.8% of Cr2O3 with Cr:Fe rat io of 1.7 and 5.8% of SiO2 which was not suitable for metallu rgical industry. Detailed characterisation studies were carried out to predict the theoretical limits to improve the Cr/Fe rat io. Mineralogical investigation by using QEMSCAN studies revealed that chromite, hematite, goethite, Fe Silicates and kaolin ite are do minating phases in the ore.Half of the Fe was present in the chromite spinel, whereas other 30% and 20% werereported fro m silicates and iron minerals, respectively. It was predicted fro m characterisation that, product can be enriched to 2.48 Cr:Fe ratio by discarding the silicate/locked silicate, Fe silicate gangue minerals whereas product quality can be upgraded maximu m to 3.58 o f Cr:Fe ratio by separating all iron bearing minerals. The beneficiation studies revealed that, the product can be enriched to having Cr:Fe ratio of 2.31 and 3.35 by gravity concentration (wet shaking table) and h igh intensity magnetic separation (Induced Ro ll Magnetic Separator) respectively. So the high intensity magnetic separator (Induced Roll Magnetic Separator) was suggested for the quality improvement of the off g rade chromite ore ofSukinda region, India.