A PROCESS FOR ENHANCED REMOVAL OF IRON FROM BAUXITE ORES

A process to remove iron from bauxite ore is described in which the ore is first finely crushed, calcined, and contacted with a reducing gas to convert iron present as very weakly magnetic goethite or hematite to magnetite or elemental iron. The ore is then passed through a magnetic separator to remove the iron. A 1.5% Fe2O3 product was produced from an Alabama bauxite ore analyzing 2.7% Fe2O3. Calcination and H-2 reduction at 800-degrees-C and single-pass magnetic separation at 4000 Gs were used. There was 95% recovery of the iron-free bauxite starting material, and the magnetic fraction contained 21% Fe2O3.