The present invention relates to a method of
smelting a metalliferous feed material. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of
smelting composite agglomerates comprising a metalliferous feed material, a
reducing agent and a fluxing agent using a hot oxidising gas. According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of carbothermic
smelting of a metalliferous feed material using an oxidising gas, comprising the steps of: (i) feeding composite agglomerates into a reactor to create a
packed bed within the reactor; wherein the agglomerates comprise a metalliferous feed material, a
reducing agent and a fluxing agent; (ii) heating and smelting the agglomerates using a hot oxidising gas, wherein the hot oxidising gas enters the reactor and passes through the
packed bed to form a
molten material comprising an intermediate
slag component and a partially reduced metalliferous component; (iii) introducing the
molten material into an electric
slag cleaning furnace; (iv) adding additional
reducing agent to the
molten material in the electric
slag cleaning furnace to form a
liquid metal product, a
liquid slag product and a CO-containing gas; and (v) combusting the CO-containing gas with preheated air to form a hot oxidising gas enriched in
oxygen which then enters the reactor in step (ii); wherein the temperature of the hot oxidising gas entering the reactor is controlled to be above 1400°C, and wherein the
oxygen content of the hot oxidising gas is controlled to be between 0% and 20%.