UrBC, Magnitogorsk, March 7, 2018. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) keeps working on a new slime processing unit for its Crushing & Processing Plant 5, MMK Information, PR & Advertising Department reports.

‘The idea to process the slimes coming from a man-made deposit (mostly our ore mining and processing enterprise’s byproducts from the fifties and the sixties) took root some fifteen years ago. Experts from our Central Lab determined that the slime storage facility contains a fair amount of useful iron ore concentrate. In 2015, it was decided to have this deposit processed properly,’ the company says.

According to the project manager Alexander Koshkalda, the equipment that is currently being assembled in place is quite unique. The plant relies on both the traditional magnetic particle separation (just like any other ore mining and processing enterprise) and on the gravitational processing method, which allows for extraction of non-magnetic iron ore that wouldn’t get obtained in the usual way. The gravitational method consists in separating the oxidized iron ore through the use of gravity and centrifugal force.