Smelting Studies for Recovery of Iron from Red Mud

Red mud can be regarded as a by-product of aluminium extraction process since it contains a significant amount of iron and some valuable elements. Therefore, the treatment of red mud has been a hot topic for some decades. The authors have recently started a laboratory-scale project dealing with stepwise recovery of valuable elements from red mud of Seydisehir Aluminum Plant, Turkey. The first step is related to recovery of iron and pyrometallurgical methods (smelting and solid-state reduction) will be performed. Nonferrous metals will then be selectively leached in the second step. In the extent of the present work, a literature review relevant to the smelting studies for recovery of iron from red mud was presented.