Prereduction and melting of domestic titaniferous materials

Abstract

Two domestic ilmenites and one titaniferous magnetite were prereduced by the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, in a batch rotary kiln with coal char to assess the feasibility of this technique in improving melting operations and subsequent electric furnace processing. All three prereduced titaniferous materials were melted satisfactorily in an electric arc furnace to produce iron as a metal suitable for further refining to steel; metallizations ranging from 63 to 83 pct of the iron oxides were achieved. The ilmenites yielded titanium enriched slags that were amenable to further processing by conventional methods. Prereduction decreased electrode consumption during furnace operation and also conserved expensive electrical energy that otherwise must be used to reduce and melt totally the entire titaniferous materials charge.