Iron Ore Introduction

Iron ore refers to ores containing iron elements or iron compounds that have utilization value.Natural ores (iron ores) gradually select iron through processes such as crushing, grinding, magnetic separation, flotation, and gravity separation. They are mineral aggregates containing iron elements or iron compounds that can be economically utilized. 

Different Classifications and Characteristics of Iron Ore

According to the type of iron-containing minerals: magnetite, hematite ore, false or semi-false hematite ore, vanadium-titanium magnetite, limonite, siderite ore and mixed ores composed of two or more of these iron-containing minerals.

According to harmful impurity content: Iron ore contains harmful impurities S, P, Cu, Pb, Zn, V, Ti, Co, Ni, Sn, F, As, According to its content, it can be divided into high sulfur iron ore, low sulfur iron ore, high phosphorus iron ore, low phosphorus iron ore, etc.

By industrial type: divided into available and temporarily unavailable iron ore. Available iron ores include iron ore for steelmaking, iron ore for ironmaking, and iron ore to be processed. Iron ore that cannot be used industrially, that is, off-surface iron ore, has an iron content between the lowest industrial grade and the borderline grade.

According to the composition of iron-containing minerals, iron ore can be mainly divided into 4 categories: magnetite, hematite, limonite and siderite. Various iron ores have different external morphologies and physical properties due to differences in their chemical composition, crystal structure, and geological conditions of generation.

Requirements for Iron Ore in Blast Furnace Smelting

The main factors that affect the use value of iron ore include the iron content of the ore, the chemical composition of the gangue, the physical properties of the iron ore, the high-temperature metallurgical properties and the selectivity of the iron ore. The grade of iron ore refers to the mass fraction of iron elements in the iron ore, that is, the iron content of the ore. It is an important indicator that determines whether the ore can be directly smelted. The beneficial and harmful components in the gangue are another important factor that determines the use value of the ore. The main impurities in gangue include sulfur, phosphorus, arsenic, zinc, lead, copper, fluorine, titanium and alkali metals.

Application of XRF in Iron Ore

Iron ore is one of the main smelting raw materials in the world's steel industry. The quality of iron ore seriously affects the quality and production of steel smelting. Therefore, timely detection of the iron content and main impurities of ores has very important practical significance.

The existing iron ore quality analysis methods mainly include: mass analysis method, titration method, color comparison method, plasma treatment method and spectral analysis method, etc. Among them, XRF analysis technology is widely used in the detection of ores due to its advantages such as fast analysis speed, high measurement accuracy, and good repeatability.

Application Case

In this experiment, the iron ore samples provided by a certain company were prepared by the melting method. And analyzed by LANScientific ScopeX 980CS Benchtop analyzer. The analysis results are as follows: