Selective Leaching of Steel Pollutant Element from Dilband Iron Ore, Pakistan

Dilband Iron ore of Pakistan is lean grade ore which contains sufficient amount of phosphorous bearing mineral called fluorapatite. Since phosphorous is widely acknowledged as steel pollutant and disturbs the blast furnace chemistry, so it needs to be removed effectively from the ore before the smelting operation. Present paper, therefore, aims to provide the results of phosphorous leaching efficiency noted with HCl, HNO3 and H2SO4 reagents. Results showed that H2SO4 leached the phosphorous quite selectively as compared to HCl and HNO3. Henceforth, it was possible to eradicate 49.5, 55.6 and 82.2% P2O5 from -600+212, -212+106, and -106 ? ? ? ? ?m particle size fractions respectively with 1% concentrated H2SO4.The gradual increasing trend of dephosphorization with decreasing the particle size implies that, in finer size fraction liberation of fluorapatite mineral was amplified. Perforation study using SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) provided supporting evidence in this regard.