Krivyi Rig nuggets

For several years Ukrainian steel industry is on the eve of the introduction of direct reduction of iron technology. Although it is still long way to go before the actual projects the number of anxious to produce steel using new technology is rising.

Last week the Japanese company Kobe Steel, together with its partners - the U.S. Midrex and Ukrainian Hares Engineering - held a conference presentation of the latest technology of iron ore processing to the granular iron, registered under the trademark of ITmk3 (Ironmaking Technology Mark Three - technology of the steel industry of the third generation). It should be noted that this is not the first presentation of ITmk3 in Ukraine - this event already took place in March 2007, as was written in "Ukrrudprom (Japanese nuggets, 21 March 2007).

Of course, technology to produce ore coal fluxed pellets and subsequent reduction of iron in the rotary hearth furnace, since the first presentation has not changed. Besides, the very idea of mixing ore and coal fines and produce pellets of this mixture is not new. More than twenty years ago this technology has been offered by the academic of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR Zot I. Nekrasov. ITmk3, in fact, is the implementation of his proposal - using new equipment (rotary furnace instead of blast furnace) and other, technological chain instead of the blast processing.

The main message of presentation is that the ITmk3 technology, located mainly at the stage of future development, is already very close to the industrial realization. Previously, the creator of ITmk3 Professor Takuyya Negami could talk about the successful receipt of iron nuggets in the melting test in laboratory conditions, but now the conference participants can see photos of the first commercial plant in Hoyt Lake (Hoyt Lakes), the state Minessota, USA in the information booklets. The construction of the module with the capacity of 500 tons of iron nuggets in a year was launched in November 2007, the entry into operation is scheduled for summer this year. In addition, over two years since the first presentation of technology the number of steel companies intending to introduce ITmk3 has increased. In particular, in CIS countries Lebedinsky GOK in Russia and new GOK built by SBS Steel in Aktobe region of Kazakhstan intend to obtain iron nuggets. Also, at the conference, stated two years ago interest of Ukrainian group “Metivenst” is reaffirmed to build ITmk3-modules at the North and Central GOK.

Of particular importance for the Ukrainian mining and metallurgical complex was the news that the Ministry of Industrial Policy intended to apply ITmk3 technology to Kryvyi Rig Mining and Concentration Complex of oxidized ores (KGOKOR). The benefits of new technology are obvious for Ukraine - the savings of natural gas and coke, because the module can operate on coking coal and energy, as well as involvement of hematite stocks to the industrial turnover, which, until recently, have not been beneficiated and processed. As is known, geology of Krivyi Rig basin is such that before obtaining rich iron ore (magnetite), it is necessary to mine larg amounts of hematite. KGOKOR was to process hematite tails which, according to Ministry of Industrial Policy, amounts to 200 million tons.

Director of "Technology of production of iron" department of Canadian engineering company Hatch Group Jacob Gordon said that in Ukrainian conditions - high cost of natural gas, the prevalence of poor hematite over the magnetite stocks, the availability of relatively cheap energy coal at the deficit of the quality coal for coking - ITmk3 is the only acceptable option of more than a dozen other direct reduction of iron technologies. At the conference, it was announced that Kobe Steel has held an appropriate laboratory studies and received iron nuggets from Kryvyi Rig ore. Samples of the products have been sent to Ministry of Industrial Policy.

Of course, for developers of ITmk3 it is very important today to find new customers, who would venture to invest in technologies which are not yet commercial. Potential producers of iron nuggets could be metal companies deprived of their own raw materials base and planning in the future to develop poor hematite deposits in the Zaporizhia region (Announced construction projects of Priazovsky and Vasinovskogo GOKs). Meanwhile, those who wish to introduce ITmk3 are constrained by the fact that technology has not yet become a mass. On the basis of KGOKOR, in case of successful realization, the largest plant will be built using ITmk3 technology among the advertised, designed and built.