Physicochemical Aspects of Oxidative Consolidation Behavior of Manganese Ore Powders with Various Mn/Fe Mass Ratios for Pellet Preparation

With the depletion of rich manganese ore resources, plentiful manganese ore powders with various Mn/Fe mass ratios are produced. The physicochemical aspects of oxidative consolidation behavior of manganese ores with various Mn/Fe mass ratios were investigated in this work to determine whether manganese ore powders with high iron content (Fe-Mn ore) can be prepared as high-quality pellets. Physicochemical properties of the pellets were investigated, including cold compression strength (CCS), phase transformation, microstructural evolution, Vickers hardness (HV), porosity, and lattice parameter. CCS testing indicated that the strength of roasted Fe-Mn ore pellets was observably lower than that of pure hematite or manganese ore pellets. Phase and morphology results showed that in Fe-Mn ore pellets, an Mn ferrite phase was generated between hematite and pyrolusite particles. However, newborn Mn ferrites and hematite had an obvious crystal boundary in the crystallographic particles. Moreover, poorly crystallized Mn ferrite particles were evident, along with Mn and Fe element concentration gradients, due to the inadequate diffusion of metal ions. This resulted in poor mechanical properties of the Fe-Mn ore pellets. A temperature over 1275 °C and a roasting time of 15 min is required for the oxidative consolidation of Fe-Mn ores. In such optimized cases, Mn, Fe, O, and Al elements were uniformly distributed in the well-crystallized Mn ferrite grains, which provided favorable mineralogy for the consolidation of Fe-Mn ore powders.