Leopold Leontyev
Director, RAS Academician, Ural Division, Institute of Metallurgy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Vladlen Reznichenko
Head of Laboratory, Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science, RAS

The world production of titanium and its dioxide pigment is based on rutile, ilmenite and arizonite minerals. The development of production operations connected with vanadium application ensured a partial consumption of titanomagnetite ores. Latest R&D achievements give an opportunity to transit to a new mineral processing technology. It permits a naturally-alloyed metal to be used in the production of general-purpose vanadium steels, V²O⁵ for battery cells, vanadium metal for nuclear engineering, titanium dioxide and tetrachloride for production of white pigment and Ti-based metals. Rare elements and noble metals as semi-products are additionally concentrated here. By virtue of it, titanomagnetites will become the mostly-used raw material in the long run.

    Having the limited resources of rutile and pigment ilmenite, Russia, ranking world second in the mineral resources of titanium, possesses huge fields of leucoxenes and, particularly, titanomagnetite. It also has at its disposal the basics of a highly-efficient technology of their processing to an artificial starting material meeting stiff requirements of titanium producers. Titanomagnetites will promote to establish a closed-loop process cycle.
For this purpose, Russia has a few promising areas.
There are big deposits of complex raw materials in the Russian Far East. They include titanomagnetite (Fe, Ti, V), polymetallic (Zn, Pb, Sn), apatite-titanomagnetite, nickel, copper-nickel, chromite and other varieties of ores. They also contain Sc, W, In, Vi, Bi, Ga, precious metals, among them, Pt, as impurity elements to be recovered. In this area the most valuable deposits are titanomagnetite ores of Tatar Strait, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka as well as the Maimakansky, Khabarovsky, Chalgany and other deposits.
In the western shelf of Tatar Strait there is a large province of offshore-marine placers of titanomagnetite ores containing Fe, V, Sc and rare earths. The concentrate contains 0.4-0.6 % V²O⁵, 8-10 % TiO² and 60-70 % of iron oxides. In its composition, the deposit is similar to the titanomagnetite placers of Kuril Islands and Kamchatka but purer in S and P. The Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science of RAS proposed a flowsheet of producing vanadium iron fit for recovery of vanadium and titanate slag for downstream extraction of titanium, dioxide pigment and magnesia product for refractories.
The largest Maimakansky deposit of apatite-ilmenite-titanomagnetite ores is bedded in the northern slopes of the Dzugdzur Range. A general flowsheet for complex use of the ores containing 7 % TiO², 14.17 % Fe^total, 4.3 % P²O⁵, 0.17 % V²O⁵ has been developed. The main commercial product will be anosovite (rutile) product, naturally-alloyed V-containing steel, FeV and apatite concentrate, with a by-product in the form of a light magnesia fraction of refractory slag treatment. The anosovite product meets the specifications for production of Ti or its dioxide pigment.
The ilmenite concentrate of the Khabarovsky deposit differs from a Norwegian one mostly preferred in the world market by a slightly higher chromium impurity content. The latter is removed during electrothermal operations with Ti-rich slags produced by a transition of chromium to the metallic phase or by sulfuric acid techniques well-known in the production of dioxide pigment. The concentrate can be downstream processed at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur (the Khabarovsk Region) Chemical & Process Plant with an output of high-quality rutile pigment.
When preparing sands of the Chalgany placer deposit (the town of Blagoveschensk), a 32.8 % TiO² iron-titanium concentrate is separated. A two-stage concentrate smelting process with an operation of pre-reduction of iron oxides by a gaseous reductant and their downstream ore-smelting in an electric furnace is recommended.
The development of the productive forces in the area of the Baikal-Amur railway line is connected with a complex development of world largest deposits of titanomagnetite and ilmenite ores. During the dressing of the Chineisky deposit ores, a whole number of concentrates and ore products is separated - titanomagnetite, ilmenite (35 - 40 % TiO²), copper-nickel (up to 28 % Cu), etc. Some deposit sections rich in Cu-Ni ores contain the Pt group metals similar to the Norilsk variety. A two-stage smelting process can be applied to make an entry product from the ore for making V- and Ti-containing steels of various applications. Apart from it, the Ti-V slag phase is made for chemical processing to dioxide pigment or tetrachloride as well as V²O⁵ for the output of FeV and production of vanadium metal by a molten-media electrolytic refining method. The ilmenite and Cu-Ni concentrates are each of individual technological value.
Ilmenite-titanomagnetite ores dominate in the Bolshoy Seyim deposit. They are represented by titanomagnetite (34 %), ilmenite (36.12 %), pyroxene (6.74 %), etc. Titanium is divided as below: ilmenite - 89.4 %, titanomagnetite 5.5 %, nonmetallic minerals 5.1 %. The ilmenite concentrate is of adequately high quality for the production of titanium dioxide pigment by a sulfuric acid flowsheet.
Titanomagnetite, ilmenite, magnetite, etc. are the basic ore minerals of the Malo-Tagulsky deposit. In terms of chemical composition the ores are high titaniferous and V-bearing with low P. During dressing, titanomagnetite and ilmenite concentrates are separated. The studies showed a promising application of a mix of ilmenite and titanomagnetite concentrate (57.9 % Fe, 14.4 % TiO², 0.9 % V²O⁵). The metallic phase is an initial one for the production of naturally-alloyed steels and V²O⁵.
The natural riches of Central Siberia enclose big deposits of complex ores. The Kharlovsky deposit is situated in a peopled locality of Altay. The body features over ten ore horizons of 10 to 200 m in thickness, extending up to several kilometers. The ore mineral is titanomagnetite and ilmenite. The comprehensive processing includes a magnetic flotation with a mix of ilmenite and titanomagnetite concentrates produced, a two-stage electrothermal refining with the metallic phase to be made for the output of V (18.25 % V²O⁵) and Ti (72.18 % TiO²) slag as well as magnesia-alumina (18.5 % Al²O³, 42.77 % MgO) product for magnesium oxide to be made with downstream production of refractories, alumina, etc.
The Lysansky deposit group (the Krasnoyarsk Territory) features a high concentration of magnesium oxide in the ore. During the dressing, ilmenite, titanomagnetite and bulk (mixed) concentrates are separated. The Ti slags made by bulk concentrate smelting contain 52.94 – 71.25 % TiO²+Ti²O³. During their dressing, the 92 % TiO² rutile products are made. In the case of complex processing with a recovery of Fe and Ti as well as Mg, the preparation of the Lysansky ores will fully meet economic and ecological requirements.
The Yaregsky deposit of titanium ores proper in Komi Republic is represented by oil-bearing sandstones with leucoxene containing up to 11 % TiO². After oil extraction and sandstone preparation, a concentrate of about 50 % TiO² was produced. The Ural Division of the Institute of Metallurgy of RAS has developed a technique of producing a pigment product from the concentrate. Downstream refining to a commercial concentrate will probably include the production of an artificial rutile and a process product of high reactivity containing no less than 85 % TiO² for further processing by chlorination and acid attack.
Titanomagnetites account for 76.8 % of total resources of Uralian iron ores. They are represented by the Kyshtym and Kachkanar groups, the Kusinsky, Kopansky, Medvedevsky and other deposits. Their ores can be effectively prepared by complex flowsheets of electrothermal and chemical processes.
The inferior of the central part of Russia is rich in placer deposits - Central, Lukoyanovky, Shkurlatovsky, etc. The Central deposit (the Tambov Region) is a placer in which Zr (up to 0.05 %), rutile (up to 0.5 %), ilmenite (up to 2.5 %) are available as ore minerals. The geological conditions of the ore sand bedding favor open-cut mining. As a result of sand benefication, an ilmenite concentrate of 58 % TiO² with an ilmenite recovery rate of 85 %, a rutile concentrate containing 93 % TiO² with a rutile recovery rate of 80 %, a zirconium concentrate with 93 % TiO² and a zirconium recovery rate of 90 % are produced.
The most promising operation is the processing of the ilmenite concentrate to Ti slags (up to 90 % TiO²) and their downstream chlorination with TiCl⁴ made for titanium metal and titanium dioxide to be further produced.
The Lukoyanovsky deposit sands (the Nizhegorodsky Region) show zircon (24 gr/m₃) and rutile (18 gr/m₃) separated to individual concentrates and used according to their application. But a dominating concentrate is an ilmenite-chromite-hematite one (30 % Fe²O³, 30 % TiO², 10 % Cr²O³). The studies of the Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science resulted in a chemical and metallurgical variant of its processing with a chrome metallic product to be made for downstream conversion into chrome slag (up to 60 % Cr²O³) - an artificial starting material for FeCr and a semi-product for steelmaking as well as a titanate product (slag phase) for making TiO².
The stripping sands of the Shkurlatovsky deposit contain ilmenite (130 kg/m₃), zircon (5.6 kg/m₃), etc. The preparation techniques helped to separate a modified ilmenite concentrate, which, when refined, gives an up to 80 % TiO² slag that can be used in the production of TiO² pigment.
In the Kola Peninsula the Ti-bearing raw material resources are enormous. They are represented by ilmenite, titanomagnetite and perovskite ores. The Gremyakha-Vyrmes deposit is identified as the most promising and rich one. Its ores contain more than 20 % TiO². They can be dressed at the Olenegorsky Mine & Concentrator with the ilmenite and titanomagnetite concentrates converted at the underutilized facilities of the Severonickel Works.
The quality of the Russian identified and explored resources of Ti raw materials is lower than that of the foreign ones (Norway, Canada, South Africa). Nevertheless, the Russian mineral resources and efficient technologies of their complex processing permit the domestic demand for titanium and its dioxide pigment, vanadium pentoxide, rare metals and dispersed elements to be met as well as their profitable exports to be arranged.