Recovery of Iron from Turkish and Iranian Red Muds

Turkish and Iranian red mud samples of different composition and mineralogy were processed by solid-state reduction followed by wet magnetic separation and smelting, two commonly used pyrometallurgical methods for iron recovery. The application of these two methods on the same samples allowed them to be compared thoroughly and to be examined for versatility. The results showed that it was possible to recover more than 90% of iron using both methods. However, the concentrate obtained by the first method contained a significant amount of undesirable oxides. Thus, large proportions (similar to 30%) of valuable elements that are planned to be recovered by hydrometallurgical methods were removed together with the iron. The smelting method, on the other hand, made it possible to recover the iron with high efficiency and as a marketable purity Fe-C alloy. The metal obtained by smelting contained 96% iron, 2% carbon, and a small amount of impurities like Si, Ti, and Na.