A Short Review of the Effect of Iron Ore Selection on Mineral Phases of Iron Ore Sinter

The sintering process is a thermal agglomeration process, and it is accompanied by chemical reactions. In this process, a mixture of iron ore fines, flux, and coal particles is heated to about 1300 °C–1480 °C in a sinter bed. The strength and reducibility properties of iron ore sinter are obtained by liquid phase sintering. The silico-ferrite of calcium and aluminum (SFCA) is the main bonding phase found in modern iron ore sinters. Since the physicochemical and crystallographic properties of the SFCA are affected by the chemical composition and mineral phases of iron ores, a crystallographic understanding of iron ores and sintered ore is important to enhance the quality of iron ore sinter. Scrap and by-products from steel mills are expected to be used in the iron ore sintering process as recyclable resources, and in such a case, the crystallographic properties of iron ore sinter will be affected using these materials. The objective of this paper is to present a short review on research related to mineral phases and structural properties of iron ore and sintered ore.