Iron ore beneficiation key for India’s steelmaking goal

The Indian steel industry should sharpen its focus on iron ore beneficiation as demand for the raw material rises with heightened steelmaking capacity and the push towards decarbonisation gathers pace, industry experts said.

Beneficiation — a process that increases ore's iron content and removes impurities such as alumina — is the "need of the hour" as Indian steelmakers ramp up production to meet the government's target of 300mn t of crude steel capacity by 2030, several company executives said at an industry event last week.

India is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the world, with output reaching a record high of 277mn t in the 2023-24 fiscal year. But the country exported about 48mn t of lower-grade iron ore — with Fe content below 58pc — particularly to China, experts said at a conference by Metalogic PMS in Vishakhapatnam city.

Increasing the ore's quality could improve hot metal output, bring down production costs and ensure domestic raw materials security to meet increasing requirements for steelmaking.

Steel consumption in India is expected to increase by 9-10pc in 2024-25 because of higher infrastructure funding by the government, according to Icra. Major steelmakers such as JSW Steel have been investing aggressively in expanding production capacity this year.

About 150mn t of beneficiation plant capacity is currently available in India and only 40-42pc is being utilised, some industry executives highlighted at the conference.

Iron ore beneficiation has lagged in India because of challenges such as the area required for tailings and transportation costs, state-controlled mining firm NMDC technical director Vinay Kumar said. Tailings refer to the waste generated by the beneficiation process.

Constructing more slurry pipelines would reduce logistics expenses, Kumar added.

NMDC has a target of 100mn t/yr of iron ore production capacity by 2030.

A step towards net zero

Higher-grade iron ore would limit carbon emissions during the steelmaking process, helping India achieve its net zero emissions target by 2070, experts said.

India's steel ministry has been exploring alternative ways of steelmaking over traditional blast furnaces, and in June invited proposals for pilot projects to produce direct-reduced iron (DRI) using hydrogen.

DRI can be used in electric arc furnaces (EAF) to produce low-carbon steel, but that requires iron ore with Fe content of 67pc or above, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (Ieefa).

"There is a lot of aspiration to go green in steelmaking. That's why the DRI-EAF route is being preferred because the CO2 emission is lower there," Lloyds Metals and Energy director of steelmaking Priya Ranjan Prasad said.

The vertical shaft DRI process needs high-purity pellets and "demand is much more than what is being produced right now", he added. "The only route is we beneficiate, take the Fe levels beyond 66-67pc and produce pellets that can be charged to DRI furnaces."

By Amruta Khandekar