Tata Steel’s Ores, Mines & Quarries (OMQ) Division has opened an 8 Mt/y crushing and washing plant at its Khondbond Iron and Manganese Mine (KIMM) near Joda in the Keonjhar district of Odisha, India.
The facility was inaugurated today by T V Narendran, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel, in the presence of D B Sundara Ramam, Vice President (Raw Materials), Tata Steel; Avneesh Gupta, Vice President (TQM and Engineering & Projects), Tata Steel; Atul Kumar Bhatnagar, General Manager (OMQ Division), Tata Steel; Mukesh Ranjan, Chief Projects OMQ Division, Tata Steel; Pervez Akhtar, Chief Projects Raw Materials, Tata Steel; and other senior officials and vendor partners of the company.
Speaking on the occasion, Narendran emphasised the need to focus more on resource efficiency, productivity and technology with the requirement of raw materials growing in line with the growth of the company. He congratulated the OMQ Division and the engineering and projects team for achieving this great milestone.
The iron ore processing plant will cater to the rapidly growing raw material requirements of Tata Steel and will provide raw material security. In line with the company’s core objective of building sustainable mining and manufacturing processes, the facility incorporates the latest technology for ore processing, enabling efficient resource usage and reduced wastage.
The plant design includes three stage crushing and screening. To reduce the inherent alumina from the ore, two rotary drum scrubbers have been installed, which can reduce the alumina of the incoming ore, thereby improving the ore quality.
The slurry from the scrubbing screens is processed through hydrocyclone clusters, maximising ore recovery and reducing wastage, the company said. The overflow from the hydrocyclone is fed to a high rate settling thickener which facilitates recovery of process water from the slime. To further minimise water use, the water recovered from the thickener is recycled back into the plant for recirculation, minimising the requirement of makeup water for plant operation.
An in-plant rainwater harvesting reservoir has also been created to store and reuse the rainwater runoff from the hill slopes for dust suppression, plant operations and ground water charging in and around Khondbond. A paste thickener facility is also being set up within the premises for further improving the recovery of water. The plant is equipped with a dry fog dust suppression system and water sprinklers for controlling fugitive dust emissions within the product stockpiles.