Mineral Processing

Coking coal

Also known as metallurgical coal, is a specific grade of coal that plays a crucial role in the production of steel.

1. Coke Production: Coking coal is used to produce coke, which serves as an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. When iron ore is smelted in a blast furnace, coke provides the necessary heat and chemical reactions to convert the iron ore into molten iron. This molten iron is then further processed to create steel.

2. Different from Thermal Coal: Metallurgical coal contrasts with thermal coal, which is primarily used for heat generation in power plants and other industries. Thermal coal does not produce coke when heated.

Iron ore

Are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe3O4, 72.4% Fe), hematite (Fe2O3, 69.9% Fe), goethite (FeO(OH), 62.9% Fe), limonite (FeO(OH)·n(H2O), 55% Fe), or siderite (FeCO3, 48.2% Fe).

Ores containing very high quantities of hematite or magnetite, typically greater than about 60% iron, are known as natural ore or direct shipping ore, and can be fed directly into iron-making blast furnaces. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel—98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel

Chromite

Is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of FeCr2O4.
Chromite today is mined particularly to make stainless steel through the production of ferrochrome (FeCr), which is an iron-chromium alloy.

Lithium

Is a chemical element; it has symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. Lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.

Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminium production, lithium metal batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. These uses consume more than three-quarters of lithium production.