Title: Optimized steelmaking from high phosphorus ores.
Abstract: Swedish iron ore products, which contribute some 12% of Western European steel producers' ore supply, originate today mainly from iron rich magnetite ore deposits, most of which are contaminated with phosphorus.Over the years the mining companies have carried through various measures to improve and adapt the ore product properties to changing market conditions.Since 1978 the Swedish National Board for Technical Development (STU) has been sponsoring a long term research programme in order to study alternative routes for the processing of phosphorus contaminated iron ores.The present paper describes:1) Mineral dressing measures to make high quality ore products from phosphorus rich ores2) Operation of blast furnaces with 100% pellets burden made from enriched, dephosphorized high phosphorus ores3) A way of making very fine concentrates sinterable in an ordinary sintering plant4) How to balance the composition of a DR pellet to make it "self-fuxing" in electric arc furnace steelmaking, forming a furnace slag giving minimum refractory wear5) How to use medium phosphorus hot metal for steelmaking, and6) Economic comparisons of steelmaking from high phosphorus ores using different processing routes.At the present scrap price in Sweden of US$90-100/t the routeMineral dressing→Pelletizing (olivine pellets)→ →Blast furnace (low slag volume operation)→Hot metal desulphurization→LD-LBE steelmaking gives lowest cost of liquid steel based on high phosphorus ores.