Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
21st International Metallurgy and Materials Congress, İstanbul, Türkiye, 6 - 08 Ekim 2022, ss.451-454
The demand for titanium metal and its compounds is
constantly increasing. Titanium's versatility,
technological advancements, and increasing human
population drive nations to demand more. This thirst
for metals and exploiting mineral resources forces
civilizations to harvest low-grade deposits. Titanium
is no exception, thanks to its versatility and wide
range of applications. There are two commercial
titanium minerals, rutile and ilmenite, widely used in
industrial applications. However, the decrease of this
high-grade ore also causes the evaluation of lowgrade ore as a resource. Therefore, titano-magnetite
concentrate (TMC), with 4–8 Ti%, 50–54 Fe%, and
0.38–0.58% V content, is a high potential reserve in
terms of Ti and V and, obtained by the magnetic
enrichment method, has been an alternative source to
high-grade ore. However, due to the high iron content
of TMC, producing titanium metal and its compounds
from these resources is difficult and costly. Thus,
removal of the iron minerals, which is one of the
major constituents and impurities, is necessary. Since
for further metallurgical processes, concentrated
and/or enriched materials are needed, titanium
enrichment is important. While there are several
methods to remove iron minerals, magnetic
separation is one of the most effective methods.
Despite its easiness and effectiveness, it has a crucial
constraint, namely magnetic susceptibility. While
some iron minerals such as magnetite and wustite are
ferromagnetic and easy to separate with magnetic
separators, others like hematite have low magnetic
susceptibility. Therefore, they are not suitable for
magnetic separation. Fortunately, this drawback can
be overcome with a particular solution: magnetization
roasting. Through the roasting process, it is possible
to convert hematite into magnetite and wustite. In this
study, TMC was primarily roasted at 9 different
temperatures (from 200 to 1000 ⁰C with 100 ⁰C
increments). After roasting, the effects of temperature
on the mineralogical transformation were
investigated by X-ray diffraction to obtain
ideal/optimum experimental parameters. X-ray
diffraction patterns show that magnetization takes
place between 200-600 ⁰C and peaks at 600 ⁰C. Until
this temperature, hematite–magnetite conversion is
evident. At this point, the magnetite/hematite ratio
reaches 2.75. However, after this point, conversion
goes reverse, and hematite occurrence takes place
instead of the magnetite formation. At 1000 ⁰C, the
magnetite/hematite ratio drops to 0.45. Therefore,
according to the findings of this study, 600 ⁰C is
optimal for magnetization and following the magnetic
separation process.