China Extracts Iron from Mine Tailings, Announces “World’s First Large-Scale Industrial Application”

[Financial News] China, the world’s largest consumer of iron ore, has announced the world’s first large-scale industrial application of technology to extract iron from mineral tailings that had previously been discarded.
According to local media, including the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily and China Science Daily, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced on the 6th that a production facility capable of processing low-grade iron ore and tailings—residue left after minerals are separated—recently passed its completion inspection.
Built in Anshan, Liaoning Province, a major steel-producing base in China, the facility can process 5.56 million tons annually. The Chinese Academy of Sciences described it as the first successful case of processing low-grade iron ore and tailings at a large-scale industrial facility.
The facility’s key technology is a new magnetizing roasting process developed by the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In general, iron ore is mined and then separated into iron-bearing minerals and unwanted rock based on differences in magnetism or density. However, it is difficult to achieve economic viability using conventional methods when processing low-grade ore with very low iron content.
Researchers developed a process that heats iron minerals that are nonmagnetic or only weakly magnetic to high temperatures, changing their properties and making them magnetic before separating them.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the technology can produce iron concentrate with an iron content of 65% from tailings containing only 11% iron.
Energy consumption is also reportedly 35% lower than that of comparable conventional processes. The project was also selected as one of the first demonstration projects for advanced green and low-carbon technologies by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
China is the world’s largest consumer of iron ore, accounting for more than half of global consumption, but it relies on overseas imports for more than 80% of the iron ore it needs. Its main suppliers are Australia and Brazil.
China has the world’s fourth-largest iron ore reserves, but much of its ore is low grade. About half of these reserves have not been properly utilized because they are difficult or costly to process using existing technologies.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that expanded application of the technology could enable China to utilize approximately 30 billion tons of difficult-to-process iron ore and about 10 billion tons of iron-bearing tailings domestically.
Ansteel Group, a major Chinese state-owned steelmaker, is pursuing iron ore tailings reprocessing projects with a combined annual capacity of 24 million tons, including the facility described above. China Central Television (CCTV) assessed that the technology could strengthen China’s ability to secure its own iron resources and help reduce its heavy reliance on imports of iron ore, a strategic resource.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Specialist Reporter