STUDY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF PROCESSING IRON CONCENTRATE OBTAINED IN THE ENRICHMENT CYCLE OF COPPER-IRON-VANADIUM ORES

Abstract

The iron concentrate obtained after separation of the copper component from copper-iron-vanadium ores contains about 1% vanadium in addition to iron. Such vanadium content is insufficient for its extraction by hydrometallurgical methods. This paper proposes a method of partial selective reduction of iron from the concentrate to increase the vanadium content in the slag by 3–4 times. Analysis of the obtained results shows that the transfer of vanadium to the liquid metal is determined by the residual FeO content in the slag. This process takes place when the FeO content in the slag is about 20% or less. This allows for selective separation of a significant portion (about 80%) of iron through partial carbothermic reduction of the concentrate, thereby increasing the vanadium content in the slag. The possibility of producing V₂O₅ from such vanadium-enriched slag by a hydrometallurgical method is demonstrated. Experiments were carried out, including sintering of the vanadium-containing slag (obtained from the concentrate pre-enriched by partial reduction of iron) with sodium carbonate, followed by grinding, aqueous leaching of the sinters, and purification of the solutions from silicon and aluminum compounds. A 10% NH₄Cl solution was added to the heated solutions, and after washing and drying the precipitated product, technical-grade V₂O₅ was obtained.