Northern Mining established the production of pellets with an iron content of more than 65%

Currently, iron ore raw materials produced at the Northern Mining are ordered by steelmakers from Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Serbia

The Northern Mining and Processing Plant (Northern GOK) established the production of homogeneous pellets with an iron content of more than 65%. This is stated in the press release of Metinvest.Media.

«Before the beginning of the Great War, the plant was largely focused on the supply of steel equipment to the Ukrainian steel enterprises of Metinvest. But with the temporary loss of control over the Mariupol plants and the blockade of the ports, the combine was forced to look for alternative markets for the sale of commodity products. The prospect was made up of the steel mills of Europe. Technologists of Mining implemented operational improvements in the technological chain of manufacturing concentrate and pellets, so that iron ore met the requirements of European steelmakers,» the message says.

For this purpose, the pellet production workshop №2 implemented a modernization project on the LURGI 552V roasting machine. In particular, a large-scale repair was carried out with the modernization of the raw pellet screen.

An additional upper deck was installed above the existing roller screen, which sifted out the small non-standard class of pellets. The appropriate design made it impossible for particles larger than the standard to enter the burning machine. This increased the quality of non-fluxed pellets at the output.

In addition, the modernization of equipment allows the enterprise to reduce the costs of natural gas and electricity, as well as to reduce the amount of concentrate used for the production of pellets by reducing the amount of screening.

«Specialists of the Northern Mining have been working on improving the technological process of pellet production since 2019. At the beginning of 2023, we implemented the first stage of modernization of the automatic technological process control system. The improvement of quality was also facilitated by the establishment of a technological process for the production of concentrate with an iron content of 68% at ROF №1. All this made it possible, despite the war, to reorient our production for the European market, providing the plant’s staff with work in this turbulent time,» said the CEO of the plant Andriy Skachkov.

According to him, currently, steelmakers from Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Serbia order iron ore raw materials produced at the Northern Mining.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Northern Mining reported on the establishment of a technological chain for the production of iron ore concentrate with an iron content of 68% from the ore of the First May Quarry at ROF №1. Thanks to the project, the enterprise increased the quality of production of pellets and got the opportunity to enter new sales markets of iron ore.