Mix-Sintering Process of Manganese Ores and Its Effects on the Properties of Sinters

Direct use of manganese fines in the submerged arc furnace (SAF) will lead to the low permeability of the charge, essentially increase the consumption of coke and electric energy. In order to make better use of manganese fines as well as to save energy and cost in the industry, the sintering process of manganese ore is particularly important. In current study, three different Mn ores are selected to study the effect of ore proportion and basicity on the properties of sinters. Both small scale and pilot scale sintering experiments were carried out. Physical properties of the sinters at room temperature were examined and the sinters were also detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical microscope to investigate the mineral phase compositions and microstructures afterwards. The results showed that in the range of low basicity, the increase of basicity will make the strength of sinter deteriorate and the porosity decrease. Under the current experimental conditions, scheme 1 and scheme 4 with basicity of 0.7 are the better process parameters, which are applied for the pilot experiment in the sintering pot. And the pilot experimental results shown that the strength of sinter increases with the increase of carbon addition and 10% carbon addition is the optimal carbon content in the current study.