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Processing of Peridotite Rocks of Chromite Ore Overburden into Magnesium Salts and Micro Silica

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Abstract

This work describes a leaching process for the conversion of high-magnesium peridotite rock, which is a chromite ore overburden, into two valuable products: magnesium salts and micro silica. Under normal leaching conditions, residue remaining after leaching is of a gelatinous nature and thus hinders the filtration process. To address this issue, oxidative leaching with the addition of H2O2 was employed, and it significantly improved the filtration kinetics. Four different approaches for H2O2 addition were tried, and they all proved effective in controlling gelation. The optimum oxidative leaching condition was 70 °C, 2 h time, 2 M H2SO4, 0.5 M H2O2 and 400 RPM; under these conditions, 92% magnesium leaching efficiency was achieved. After leaching, the leach liquor obtained was purified and dried into Mg(OH)2 and MgSO4 salts. The leach residue contained mainly silica particles, with size in the 10–30 μm range. This material thus represents an attractive candidate for the production of high-performance concrete for the construction industry. The oxidative leaching process described here enabled the complete conversion of peridotite into valuable products, magnesium salts and micro silica.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Tata Steel management and Dr. Sanjay Chandra, Chief Research and Development, Tata Steel Limited, for their encouragement during the project and permission to publish the paper. The authors also wish to thank Ranjeet Singh, Alok Pandey, Chandra Kumar Murmu and Ravi Shankar Pathak of Tata Steel, Jamshedpur for their help at different stages of this work.

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  1. Research and Development Department, Tata Steel Ltd, Jamshedpur, 831001, India

    Kallam V. K. Reddy, Vadapalli Sanjana, Veerendra Singh & Gajanan Kapure

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  1. Kallam V. K. Reddy
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  2. Vadapalli Sanjana
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  3. Veerendra Singh
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Correspondence to Kallam V. K. Reddy.

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Reddy, K.V.K., Sanjana, V., Singh, V. et al. Processing of Peridotite Rocks of Chromite Ore Overburden into Magnesium Salts and Micro Silica. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 37, 1253–1263 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-020-00211-y

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