Reduction of ferromanganese, manganese ores, dephosphorization of manganese ores

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Manganese is an important auxiliary metal for the production of steel, as it is used as a deoxidizer, alloying element and desulfurizer. In this regard, in the production of steel, manganese is used in an amount greater than any other metal except iron itself. Approximately 56 countries around the world have resources and reserves of manganese ores. It is known that the total world reserve of manganese ores is about 15.175 billion tons, the confirmed reserves are 5.268 billion tons. High-quality manganese ores are located unevenly – more than half of the rich manganese ores are located in South Africa, the Kalahari deposit, Gabon, Australia and Brazil , in these ores the concentration of manganese oxides is 40-45%. The rest of the countries have medium-and low-quality raw materials where the content of manganese is 20-30%. For example, China's manganese ores are of low quality, difficult to enrich, carbonate, with a high phosphorus content, despite this, China is the leader in the world market for the extraction of manganese ores. The quality of China's manganese ores allows it to occupy only the fifth place in the world market, with the production of standard ores with a content of (48-50% Mn). In China, more than 70% of manganese ores contain iron with a ratio ratio of less than three percent. In India, the ores are mainly of the low or medium grade with low phosphorus content, unlike other manganese deposits. In the deposits of India, there are three varieties of low-grade manganese ores, siliceous, ferruginous and alumina. In India, selective extraction of manganese ores of the best quality has been going on for decades. Kazakhstan, as well as China, has huge reserves of manganese ores, but these ores are not always suitable for smelting standard grades of manganese alloys, about 70% of them are ferromanganese. In Russia, the State Balance of mineral Reserves currently includes 21 deposits of manganese ores, but manganese ores of good quality have to be imported. The manganese ores of Russia are, in fact, complex, containing iron and manganese minerals. In addition to the separation of manganese and iron in the production of manganese alloys from such ores, the removal of phosphorus is also a problem. In this regard, according to the current technology, it is impossible to obtain standard grades of manganese ferroalloys during metallurgical processing.

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