Mineral phase reconstruction behavior of direct reduction and smelting titanium slag at high temperature and slow cooling.

Titanium slag in this study was produced by subjecting titanomagnetite concentrate to direct reduction-electric furnace smelting. Processing mineralogy and mineral phase reconstruction behavior at high temperature and slow cooling treatment were examined by chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Anosovite solid solution is the main titanium product by the direct reduction and smelting process. Results of slow-cooling experiments show that crystal volume and size increase as cooling rate decreases. Anosovite and gangue mineral crystals develop fully with large crystal volume and size at a cooling rate of 2 K·min. Moreover, the growth of anosovite crystal was characterized by crystal nucleation and growth theory. These results provide further insights into the separation of anosovite from gangue by mineral processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]