The New Zealand sea sand ore is a kind of vanadia–titania magnetite formed by erosion in the coastal zone. Because of its coarse particle size, smooth spherical particles, complex chemical composition, it has been added to sinter as an auxiliary material. Based on the principle of optimizing ore blending to strengthen advantages and weaken disadvantages, this paper used New Zealand sea sand raw ore that has not undergone any pretreatment as the main material and prepared it into oxidized pellets using a disc pelletizer and explored the influence of high-proportion unground sea sand ore on the preparation process and reduction performance of oxidized pellets. The influence of unground sea sand ore on the falling strength, compressive strength, reduction swelling index, and reduction degree of pellets was analyzed by the ICPAES, XRF, XRD, SEM-EDS, and other detection methods, and the change laws and influencing factors of oxidized pellets were analyzed. With the increase of the amount of unground sea sand ore used, the falling strength and compressive strength of the green pellets first decreased and then gradually increased, while the compressive strength of the oxidized pellets first increased and then decreased. At the same time, as the amount of sea sand ore used increased, the reduction process of pellets was restricted. The reduction swelling index and the reduction degree index generally show a downward trend. However, the compressive strength of the pellets gradually increased after reduction. Through the research on the pellet-forming performance and reduction properties of unground sea sand ore, it is shown that when the amount of unground sea sand ore used was 40%, it can still be used as raw material for blast furnace ironmaking. Thus, this research provided specific data support for iron and steel enterprises to improve the ratio of unground sea sand ore and reduce production cost.

In the iron and steel industry, improving the usage amount of New Zealand sea sand ore as a raw material for ironmaking can reduce the production costs of iron and steel enterprises to a certain extent. In this paper, New Zealand sea sand ore without any grinding pretreatment was used as a raw material, oxidized pellets were prepared by using a disc pelletizer, and the effect of sea sand ore on the performance of green pellets and the metallurgical properties of oxidized pellets was investigated. The effects of sea sand ore on the compressive strength, falling strength, compressive strength of oxidized pellets, and reduction performance were mainly investigated. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis methods were used to discuss the influence of sea sand ore on the microstructure of the pellets’ oxidation and reduction process. As the amount of sea sand ore used increased, the compressive strength of green pellets was gradually decreased, and the falling strength of green pellets and the compressive strength of oxidized pellets were gradually increased. When the amount of sea sand ore used was 40%, the reduction swelling index of pellets was 16.31%. The increase of sea sand ore used made the reduction of pellets suppressed and the reduction rate decreased. When the amount of sea sand ore used increased to 40%, the reduction degree of sea sand ore pellets was only 60.06%. The experimental results in this paper provide specific experimental data for the large-scale application of New Zealand sea sand ore in the blast furnace ironmaking process.

The compressive strength of pellets is of great significance for the evaluation of pellets quality indexes. In this paper, the chemical composition, mineral phase composition and microstructure of pellets were analyzed by ICPAES, XRD, OM and SEM-EDS through oxidation roasting and gas-based reduction experiments. The effect mechanism of thermal regulation on the compressive strength and reduction performance of pellets was explained by the micro-indicators such as porosity, Vickers hardness and morphological structure of pellets. The results showed that with the increase of the roasting temperature and the extension of the roasting time, the internal porosity of the oxidized pellets was reduced, while the compressive strength of the pellets was continuously improved, and the roasting temperature had a greater influence on the compressive strength. However, the increase in porosity of the reduced pellets weakened the intergranular bonding between the particles, which led to a reduction in compressive strength.

Vanadium titanomagnetite is an important mineral resource. It is a raw material for ironmaking, vanadium extraction, strategic metal titanium production, and titanium dioxide production. In this study, high chromium vanadium titanomagnetite (High-Cr VTM) and ordinary iron ore were used as raw materials for pelletizing. The effect of V₂O₅ on the preparation and properties of High-Cr VTM pellets was studied. The influence of V₂O₅ on the properties of the green pellets, the compressive strength of oxidized pellets, the reduction swelling index and reduction degree, softening-melting behavior, and the migration law of Fe, Ti, and Cr in the reduction process were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that with the increase in V₂O₅ content, the properties of the green pellets basically showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing but all met the basic requirements of pelletizing. When the added amount of V₂O₅ in the pellet was 6%, the compressive strength of the oxidized pellet was the lowest at only 2565 N/pellet but it still met the quality requirements for pellets in blast furnace production. As the dosage of V₂O₅ increased, the reduction swelling index and reduction degree of the pellets showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The addition of V₂O₅ can increase the softening initial temperature, softening final temperature, melting start temperature, and dripping temperature of the High-Cr VTM pellets, narrowing the softening interval, and expanding the melting dripping interval. The experimental results provided a data reference for revealing the influence of V₂O₅ on High-Cr VTM pellets during the blast furnace smelting process.