**Abstract**

The depletion of high-grade ore minerals and the scarcity of fossil fuel reserves are challenging factors for metallurgical industries in the future. Also, extensive mining for increased steel demand results in the generation of fines often found unsuitable for use as direct feedstock for the production of metals and alloys. Apart from mines waste, the other major sources of fine minerals are leftover in charge burdens, sludges, and dust generated in the high-temperature process. Sludge and fines generated during beneficiation of ore add to this woe, as the outcomes of beneficiation plants for lean ores show better yield for fine particles. The utilization of lean ore and wastes in iron making requires wide research and adopting new advanced technologies for quality production with time-saving operations. The application of thermal plasma in mineral processing has several advantages that can overcome the current industrial metal extraction barriers. The present study demonstrates the thermal plasma for the processing of different iron-bearing minerals and its feasibility for metal extraction.

**Keywords:** thermal Plasma, blue dust, siliceous iron ore, manganiferous iron ore, recovery

## **1. Introduction**

The global production of crude steel exceeds 1869 million tonnes in the year 2019. Steelmaking viz. carbon steel and alloy steel is a multistep process where iron ore is the starting material used for iron making. Blast furnace iron making is mostly adopted by industries throughout the globe [1, 2]. Production of DRI for smelting in EAF is an alternative for iron ore reduction. There are several problems that persist with the economy of iron and ferroalloys production, and it depends upon three major factors viz. material, process, and product. The characteristics of ore minerals decide the process kinetics, and hence product quality and yield. There are several problems that still persist, as the following needs to be resolved.

i.Ore minerals: The quality of iron ore plays a significant role as the cost of raw ore attributes about 40% of the total production cost. The mined ore needs to be in the specified size range for individual furnace types, which is accomplished by crushing and sizing. The crushing and washing of bulk ore generate a substantial amount of fines viz. micro and macro fines, which cannot be fed directly into a furnace as it affects the porosity of charge burden. Moreover, it increases process cost comprising of agglomeration and heat treatment before extraction.

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CO2, H2 and N2

p. 1147-1150

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The utilization of lean ore and wastes in iron making requires wide research and adopting new advanced technologies for quality production with time-saving operations.
