Brazilian iron ore and pellets producer Samarco announced the development of a new method to measure the iron contents in iron ore.
“The new method of iron analysis consists of using an instrument called a potentiometric titrator, which significantly reduces human interference in the analysis and guarantees more precise and accurate results, in addition to gains related to the reduction of the use of chemicals and analytical costs,” Samarco said in a statement.
Similar methods that used phosphoric acid as reagent in the process have resulted in a loss of accuracy along the period of utilization, a problem that has puzzled researchers for years.
With the utilization of a scanning electron microscope in the research, Samarco and a team of specialists of the Brazilian mining institute (IBRAM) have found that the phosphoric acid was oxidizing the electrodes of the instrument, reducing its accuracy over time.
With the exclusion of the phosphoric acid, the new process has proved effective in maintaining the accuracy of the measurement of the iron contents.
According to Samarco, the next steps of the working group will be to determine the precision data of the method and formalize the proposal for its standardization next to the qualifying agencies.