ORIGINAL ARTICLE Processing of Low-Grade Chromite Ore for Ferroalloy Production: A Case Study from Ghutrigaon, Odisha, India Asish Kumar Das 1 • Somnath Khaoash 1 • Sarada Prasad Das 2 • Birendra Kumar Mohapatra 1 • Nilima Dash 2 • Saroj Kumar Singh 3 • Patitapaban Mishra 1 • Jayakrushna Mohanty 3 Received: 13 December 2019 / Accepted: 26 June 2020 Ó The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM 2020 Abstract The low-grade siliceous chromite ore from Ghutrigaon, Odisha, India, containing * 16% Cr 2 O 3 , with Cr/Fe ratio of 1.97 and * 55% of SiO 2 , does not find any use in metallurgical industry and hence considered as waste. Mineralogical investigation indicates the presence of chromite and quartz as major minerals with minor fuchsite and kaolinite. The beneficiation studies reveal that the product can be enriched to a Cr/Fe ratio of 3.35 and 3.02 by gravity concentration (wet shaking table) and wet high intensity magnetic separation, respectively. Tiny Cr- grains within quartz and fine silica dusts within chromite inhibit liberation of chromite resulting in poor response to physical beneficiation. As an alternative, processing of ore through pyro-metallurgical route was evaluated. Chromite fines mixed with carbon and lime in the form of pel- lets/granules was charged to a plasma reactor. In about ten minutes, the metal globules/prills were separated from the slag in 1:6 ratio. The metal, examined through XRD and optical microscope, was found to be ferrochrome alloy. In situ EDAX analysis indicated the metal to have 61.51% Cr, 26.52% Fe and 13.1% C with minor silica (2.42%), and the slag was composed of Ca 2 Al 2 SiO 7 which revealed that both metal and slag so obtained could suitably be used in different industries. Keywords Low-grade chromite Á Tabling Á WHIMS Á Smelting Á Ferrochrome 1 Introduction Chromium is one of the essential raw materials for the production of ferrochrome/charge chrome alloys. World reserves of chromite ore are estimated to be 6500Mt. The total Indian reserve/resources are estimated to be around 344 million tonnes, which accounts for 2.5% of the world reserve [1]. Based on availability of reserve position, metallurgical and refractory grade chromite (lumpy) may be, respectively, classed as adequate and deficient [2]. Metallurgical industries use around 90% of mined fer- rochrome-grade chromite ore from which stainless steel industry consumes about 80% in the form of charge chrome or high-carbon ferrochrome [3]. Increasing demand of chromium in steelmaking industries and the gradual depletion of high-grade chromite ores have led to the & Somnath Khaoash somg111@yahoo.in Asish Kumar Das asiskumar.ctc@gmail.com Sarada Prasad Das spdas@immt.res.in Birendra Kumar Mohapatra bk_mohapatra@yahoo.com Nilima Dash ms.nilima@gmail.com Saroj Kumar Singh sarojksingh@gmail.com Patitapaban Mishra p_geology@yahoo.co.in Jayakrushna Mohanty jk_mohanty@yahoo.com 1 Department of Geology, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, Odisha 753003, India 2 Department of Mineral Processing, CSIR- Institute of Minerals and Material Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751013, India 3 CSIR- Institute of Minerals and Material Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751013, India 123 Trans Indian Inst Met https://doi.org/10.1007/s12666-020-02032-5