A cost comparison: Production and smelting of prereduced vs. iron ore pellets

The major capital expenditure in a plant to make prereduced pellets is for kilns and coolers. Other items, beyond those required for conventional pellets, such as reductant bins and conveyors, add little to the depreciation charge per ton of product. Prereduced pellet plants cost more per product ton than those for oxide spheres largely because there is more iron in the metallized pellets. A plant cost of near $12 per annual ton is estimated in this paper. It is possible that the investment requirements may be decreased as operating experience more sharply defines the the engineering data.