Reduction smelting of bursa-uludag tungsten concentrates by the aluminothermic process

Tungsten is an important element for use in the production of some special steels and is added to steel as ferrotungsten alloys. Low carbon ferrotungsten is mostly produced by the metallothermic reduction process. The aim of this study was to determine ferrotungsten production parameters for the Etibank Scheelite concentrate containing 35% WO₃ by an aluminothermic process. Although tungsten was recovered up to 95.4%, the tungsten content of alloy obtained was a maximum of 52.6% in the aluminothermic processing of tungsten calcine obtained by total oxidizing roasting of the concentrate. Therefore, pre-roasting and magnetic separation treatments were applied to tungsten concentrate to enrich the tungsten content in the non-magnetic part of the concentrate, and the tungsten recovery obtained was 92.5%. After applying total oxidizing roasting to the non-magnetic part of the concentrate to decrease the sulfur content, a calcine containing 50.4% WO₃ was obtained. By aluminothermic reduction of this calcine, tungsten could be recovered at 79.4% and concentrated as 75.4% in the ferroalloy.