SESA GOA LIMITED - IRON ORE DIVISION

Sesa Goa Limited was established in 1954. Currently, the company exports approximately 5 million tons of iron ore, fines and lumps to customers in Japan, China and Europe from ports on both the east and west coasts of India. Besides our mining activities in Goa, we have mining operations in Karnataka and Orissa. Ore from Karnataka is exported through the ports at Goa and Chennai while ore from Orissa is exported through the ports of Haldia and Paradeep. GOA OPERATIONS The exports of ore from Goa are approximately 4 million tons of which about 3.2 million tons are fines and 0.8 million tons are lumps. Shipping of fines is restricted to the fair season between September and May while lumps are shipped throughout the year. Goa's main port is the Mormugao port which has special mechanized ore loading facilities at its Berth 9. The channel has a draft of 13 meters with no restriction in air draft. There is also a system of transhippers that can load or up-top vessels of deeper draft midstream. The load rate at Berth 9 is 45,000 tons/day and that of the transhippers ranges between 15,000 and 25,000 tons/day.

CODLI MINE

Goan Ore is generally inclined to be relatively high in alumina content. However most Goan ore is beneficiated in beneficiation plants to raise the iron content and reduce alumina so as to meet one of many specifications agreed with steel plant customers.

Sesa Goa's main mining operations are at CODLI and SONSHI. The mine at Codli is a multi pit operation. Mine planning is computerized and the disposal of overburden either in dumps outside the mines or in the mined out pits is planned to minimize haulage costs. At the Codli Mine all the ore is beneficiated. The water for beneficiation plants is decanted in a series of ponds and recycled. Excess clean water is discharged into the river system. Sonshi mine is a single pit operation. The mine is currently 210 meters deep, the bottom being 24 meters below sea level. It will eventually reach 44 meters below sea level.

KARNATAKA OPERATIONS The main operation in Karnataka is at Chitradurga. A second mine is located at Hospet. The mines are equidistant from Mormugao and Chennai and ore can be shipped from either port. As Chennai is on the east coast of India, it is not adversely affected by the south west monsoon and hence ore can be shipped throughout the year.

CHITRADURGA MINE

ORISSA OPERATIONS The main mine is located at BARBIL. The ore mined has a relatively high Fe content and a high tumbler index. High grade ore (more than 64% Fe) requires a Government of India license to export. With the opening up of the economy and the further liberalization of ore exports it is expected that exports of ore from Orissa will grow significantly.

BARBIL MINE

RIVER FLEET OPERATION In Goa, ore is transported from jetties near the mine sites (bunders) to the port in barges. Sesa has a captive

Current strategies and future challenges on exploration, beneficiation and value addition of iron ore resources with special emphasis on iron ores from Eastern India
Authors: Upadhyay, R.K.; Venkatesh, A.S. Source: Applied Earth Science, Volume 115, Number 4, December 2006, pp. 187-195(9) Publisher: Maney Publishing

Abstract: Eighty per cent of the world's steelmaking is through the blast furnace route and hence the role of iron ore as a raw material and its quality become very critical to achieve steel with the best quality from hot metal. The world's iron ore resource base has been estimated at 180 000 million tonnes (MT), while the reserves are 79 000 MT. India ranks the sixth among producers of iron ore, with a 6200 MT reserve base. The majority of Indian iron ore deposits occur in the eastern, central and southern parts of India in the regions of Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Goa. Among these provinces, the iron ores of Eastern India are of high quality and present in large quantities. Indian iron ore resources consist of both hematitic (10 052 MT) and magnetite (3408 MT) varieties. Major ore types are hard, flaky/friable, lateritic and blue dust or powdery ores. The ratio of lumps and fines in the deposits is 50: 50, but the high grade lumpy variety is rare and constitutes <10% of the total reserves. India's iron ore production has just doubled in the last 5 years, achieving a total of 154 MT in 2005-06 compared with 86 MT in 2001-02. The Indian iron ores in general and Eastern Indian iron ores in particular consist of various impurities in the forms of Al, P and Si, and this poses major beneficiation problems especially in fines processing. The presence of these elements along with sulphur adversely affects the quality of iron ores and has a great bearing on performance of blast furnaces. Reduction of the alumina content in iron ore by 1% improves blast furnace performance by 3%, reduces reduction degradation index (RDI) by 6 points, lowers the coke rate by 14 kg per tonne of hot metal and increases sinter productivity by 10-15%. The presence of phosphorus and sulphur increases surface cracking during steel processing. High alkali contents lead to a lowering of the mechanical strength of coke and sinter, imbalances in the furnace operation and a reduction in furnace productivity. The Indian iron ore industry is going to face major challenges in the near future, as the production trend of iron ore worldwide is swinging up every year owing to the iron ore boom in recent years. It calls for mineral conservation and prevention of mineral losses in terms of wastes/slimes. This needs to be achieved through detailed exploration work, mine planning techniques, scientific exploitation and mineral beneficiation processes. For optimum utilization of mineral resources, total beneficiation of iron ores, mineral

rejects and wastes need to be augmented. In addition, alternative processes for iron making, such as COREX, ROMELT and HISMELT, need to be introduced by the major producers. This paper addresses the importance of quality raw materials in achieving benchmark iron- and steelmaking while maintaining the cost effectiveness. Emphasis has been given on the value addition of the subgrade and marginal-grade ores for mineral conservation and prevention of losses. Keywords: HEMATITE; MAGNETITE; VALUE ADDITION; BENEFICIATION; MASSIVE HARD ORE; FLAKY ORE; BLUE DUST; LATERITIC ORE Document Type: Research article DOI: 10.1179/174327506X138922