MUMBAI, India, June 26 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202617026366 A) filed by African Rainbow Minerals Limited on March 06, 2026, for Process For The Carbothermic Smelting Of A Metalliferous Feedstock Material Using A Hot Oxidising Gas.
Inventor includes Bouwer, Petrus, Hendrik, Ferreira.
The application for the patent was published on June 19, 2026, under issue no. 25/2026.
Abstract: The invention relates to a process for the smelting of a metalliferous feedstock material. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for the smelting of composite agglomerates including metalliferous feedstock material, reductant and fluxes, using hot oxidising gas. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process for the carbothermic smelting of a metalliferous feedstock material using oxidising gas including the steps of: (i) feeding composite agglomerates into a reactor to create a packed bed within a reactor, wherein the agglomerates comprise metalliferous feedstock material, reductant and fluxes; (ii) heating and smelting the agglomerates with hot oxidising gas, wherein the hot oxidising gas enters the reactor and is passed through the packed bed to form molten material comprising an intermediate slag constituent and a partially reduced metalliferous constituent; (iii) channelling the molten material into an electrical slag cleaning furnace; (iv) adding additional reductant to the molten material in the electrical slag cleaning furnace to form a liquid metal product, a liquid slag product, and a CO-containing gas; and (v) combusting the CO-containing gas with pre-heated air to form the hot oxidising gas which is oxygen enriched before entering the reactor in step (ii), wherein the temperature of the hot oxidising gas entering the reactor is controlled to be above 1400°C, and wherein the oxygen content of the hot oxidising gas is controlled to be between 0% - 20%.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
