Resumen

BENDAIKHA, W.; LARBI, S.  y  RAMDANE, A.. Mineralogical and chemical characterization of an oolitic iron ore, and sustainable phosphorus removal. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2024, vol.124, n.2, pp.59-66. ISSN 2411-9717.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/2051/2024.

SYNOPSIS An oolitic iron ore from Gara Djebilet, Algeria was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectrosopy and the phosphorus distribution between various phases studied. Two ore types were identified - a haematite-dominated, oolitic type and a more massive, magnetite-dominated type. The haematite-dominated ore had a higher phosphorus content, up to 0.6% in the iron oxide minerals, than the magnetite-dominated type (0.3% P). Owing to the very fine-grained texture of the gangue minerals, reducing the phosphorus content to levels suitable for steelmaking (below 0.05% P) by conventiobal means would entail an energy-intensive process with a high carbon footprint. Preliminary leaching test work using a sulphurous geothermal water as lixiviant, assisted by solar thermal acceleration, gave very promising results, removing 0.13% of the residual P (or 21.7% removal of total P) from the high-phosphorus oolitic ore.

Palabras clave : Oolitic iron ore; phosphorus removal; renewable resources; sustainability; sulphurous thermal water; leaching; solar thermal.

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