Analysis of the Microwave Heating Effect in the Comminution Efficiency of Iron Ore Particles

Heating iron ore fine particles using microwave energy has been effective due to the different interactions between minerals and gangue in the magnetic field generated by the microwave. In this way, this paper proposes to use microwave energy to heat the particles of iron ore to promote micro cracks and fissures, which would facilitate the comminution and pulverization process to produce pellet feed. It was analyzed different conditions of heating and cooling in the comminution step. By using techniques of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image analysis it was possible to assess and quantify the micro cracks and subsequent analysis of the energy and size fragmentation in the comminution step of ultrafine particles.