AlHadeed Pelletization Company Limited

Iron Ore Beneficiation & Pelletization Plants

Overview

Silver Lake Partners FZE (SLP) is setting up 3 MTPA Iron Ore Beneficiation and 1.8 MTPA Iron Ore Pelletization Plant (in first phase) for manufacturing Iron Ore Pellets (IOPs) through its subsidiary Messrs Alhadeed Pelletization Company Limited (APCL).

In this regard, relevant technical studies & tests are being conducted by Allmineral, a leading world-renowned German mineral consultancy firm.

APCL has a baseline requirement of around 1.2 million tons per annum (MTPA) pellet feed for its Pelletization Plant. In order to fulfill this requirement, Iron Ore Beneficiation requires around 1.8 – 2 MTPA crude ore.

The Project would be allotted 50 acres land for development of the plants

Iron Ore Mines in Pakistan

Iron ore deposits are present in Pakistan at various locations. Extensive high-quality reserves of iron ore are found in Pachinkoh and Chigendik towns of Nok Kundi area in Balochistan, Kalabagh region in Western Punjab, Chiniot in Central Punjab and Chitral in northern KPK. In Sindh, iron ore is found near Thatta, Sehwan and Nagarparkar. Low quality reserves are also available in Hazara, KPK

Total reserves/ deposits of iron ore in Pakistan amount to 1,427 million tons. APCL is in the process of entering into contractual arrangements with various domestic iron ore exporters.

Iron Ore Beneficiation Plant

Process Flow

Crude ore from the mines is passed through multistage comminution and separation process to extract the right size of iron content

1- Crushing and Screening

The process flow starts where the crude ore is crushed and screened at different levels. The size of the crude ore is periodically reduced from 250mm to 75mm, then to 30mm and then finally below 30mm Particle Size Distribution (PSD) are passed on to next stage.

2- High Pressure Grinding Roll-Presses (HPGR) Tower

In this section, PSD is further reduced with the help of High-Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR). The feed is passed through crushing zone with high pressure to reduce the size of the PSD to below 3mm.

3- Mill Circuit

The Mill Circuit feeds the outcome from previous section into a ball mill to further reduce the size to 180μm (micrometer). After further processing, the output is sent for magnetic separation.

4- Magnetic Separation and potential Re-Grinding

This step separates the valuable minerals from the waste rock. Due to the different magnetic characteristics of the minerals a three-step magnetic separation process is used.

Low Intensity Magnetic Separation (LIMS) is a wet drum type separator which separates magnetic minerals of the ores and the non-magnetic portion is passed to second stage.

Nonmagnetic particles of LIMS are further separated in Wet Medium Intensity Magnetic Separation (WMIMS) and the remainder nonmagnetic particles are processed in Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation (WHIMS).

5- Solid Liquid Separation

This area separates the solid and liquid particles. Depending on the PSD, different dewatering (filter) technologies have to be considered. The solid particles are the end products needed for the pellet facilities.

Iron Ore Pelletization Plant

Process Flow

1- Dosing and Mining

Iron concentrate from the beneficiation plant is transferred into bins
Dosing belt weighers transfer iron concentrate from bins to the mixer
Bentonite is used by the pellet plant as a binder to improve physical properties of green pellets
Whilst Limestone is used to adjust and control the basicity for better burning of particles
Iron concentrate, Bentonite & Limestone are mixed along with water to create green pellet balls

2- Pelletizing (Green Balls Pellets Production)

Green pellet balls received from the mixer are added into the pelletization discs
These discs use the rotation action along with sprayed water to form a rolling mass of fines and green pellets of different diameters
Once pellets reach a certain size, they are discharged over the lip of disc into the discharge chute

3- Induration

Green pellets from the disc are conveyed onto a collecting conveyer which has a reciprocating head that oscillates over the width of the conveyer
The conveyer belt feeds onto a roller that removes undersize green balls which are then recycled back
Green balls that are up to the specification are transported into the induration process
The pellets will be hardened and then dried in two stages, progressively heating them up to 1200° C and then subsequently they are then fired up to a temperature of 1250°C

4- Screening

Hot pellets from the induration are received and cooled via an ambient air updraft in two stages
Five fans process gas flow whilst the cooling air fan forces the air through the pellet bed
The entire process produces high quality oxide pellets
Pellets produced will then be transported towards the stacking area near the plant

Potential of Local Iron Ore Exploration and Supply

Pakistan is bestowed with abundant natural resources including minerals. Although Pakistan is not known as a major Iron Ore producer, however, a number of iron producing sources are spread throughout the country.

In the absence of an active local buyer, currently all this raw iron ore is being sent to China mostly with minimal value addition.