**4. Conclusions**

Interaction between the freshly reduced solid iron and the primary FeOcontaining slag considerably determine carbonization of iron and subsequent separation of metal and slag into the independent liquid phases in the blast furnace operation conditions. Transfer of sulfur and silicon among the solid, gaseous and liquid phases is also affected by FeO content in slag which is determined by the wettability phenomena on the slag-metal interface. Wettability of solid iron by molten ternary CaO-SiO2-FeO slags in an inert atmosphere under the temperature conditions close to the complete melting for the given slags was studied experimentally, and the main results are as follows:


3.A possibility of controlling the wetting conditions between the primary slag and the solid iron by tuning the composition of slag-forming compounds of iron ore material can be used to optimize the parameters of cohesive zone in blast furnace and to control the composition of hot metal or to design innovative energy-efficient ironmaking processes with limited transfer of sulfur and, possibly, phosphorus to the metallic phase.
