RE:CanMet reduction of Chromite Very Promising, How far off? or With right backing it could happen Now!!!!
Part of their Conclusion.... the bottom line is as follows
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In addition, as an integral part of this innovative CaCl2-assisted segregation reduction process for the direct production of ferrochrome, separation of the ferrochrome alloy particles from the unwanted gangue present in the reduced products necessitates further study. This can be achieved by conventional gravity or magnetic concentration techniques. Commercialization of this alternate process of ferrochrome production is promising as conventional furnaces such as a rotary kiln could be employed for this purpose. Compared to the conventional EAF smelting, this new direct reduction process offers significant potential for energy savings by employing a much lower reduction temperature. Furthermore, the CaCl2 in the reduced product could be recovered for re-use by simply water-leaching the product, thereby significantly reducing the operating costs. Acknowledgments: The following contributions are acknowledged: Yves Thibault and Dominique Duguay for assisting with the EPMA analysis, and KWG Resources Inc. for providing the chromite ore samples. The study was funded by NRCan under the Rare Earth Elements and Chromite R&D Program. Author Contributions: Dawei Yu conceived and designed the experiments; Dawei Yu performed the experiments; Dawei Yu analyzed the data; Dawei Yu and Dogan Paktunc contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools; Dawei Yu