The Midrex Process and the Nigerian Steel Industry

The goal of producing steel in Nigeria from iron ore was made possible through the Midrex Process based Direct Reduction plant at the Delta Steel Company. The iron ore was originally imported from Liberia and its parameters formed the basis of the design of the plant. Following the difficulty in obtaining this ore, the Brazilian ores later became the source of raw materials. The difficulty in maintaining this supply led to the need of looking inwards at the substantially available local iron ore at Itakpe in the middle belt region of the country. This ore with an as-mined total iron content of less than 50% and after beneficiation a total iron content of about 63% and a gangue content of about 4% was unsuitable for use in the direct reduction process. The re-beneficiated ore of about 66% total iron was pelletized and reduced in the direct reduction plant yielding a degree of metallization of about 92% and a carbon content of about 2% after careful adjustment and application of the operating parameters to produce direct reduced iron suitable for steel production in the electric arc furnaces.