Study on Extraction of Iron From Chromite

Research about extraction of iron from chemical‐grade South African chromite by carbothermic reduction and hydrochloric acid leaching was conducted in this study. It was found that temperature had a remarkable effect on the extraction yield of iron and that the optimum experimental temperature was 1100 °C, which coincides with the theoretically predicted value. The effect of reduction duration and the process of precipitate development at 1100 °C were also investigated. It was found that selective reduction of iron reached near completion within 2 h with only minor loss of chromium. Results also demonstrated that 20% hydrochloric acid was strong enough to extract iron from the reduction product selectively and at the same time increased the porosity of the chromium‐rich solid particle. Ultimately, there is a clear improvement of the Cr/Fe ratio, Cr 2 O 3 % and specific surface area of chromite, and magnetite was obtained as by‐product.