Alternative utilisation prospects for Indian lateritic overburden

Physical beneficiation and metallurgical processes alone cannot be used for the processing of Indian lateritic overburden. In this article, studies carried out on complex lateritic overburden using a combination of physical and pyro-metallurgical process for making pig iron nugget from the overburden is discussed. Physical beneficiation has enriched the Fe content to 52.74% with a weight per cent recovery of 59.67% having Ni-0.9% from the feed assaying 46.73% Fe (T), 0.76% Ni. This beneficiated nickel enriched iron was used for the production of pig iron nuggets which has given a composite product containing Ni~1.7%, Cr~ 1.5%, C~ 3% and Fe-rest with recoveries of iron, chromium and nickel as > 95%, > 95% and -40%, respectively.