OREANDA-NEWS . September 4, 2012. Siemens Metals Technologies and consortium partner Midrex Technologies, Inc. signed a contract with the Russian Metalloinvest Company to expand the hot briquetted iron (HBI) production at Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Integrated Works (Lebedinsky GOK) in Gubkin (Belgorod Region, Russia). The contract has a total volume of 270 Mio Euro. The new plant with a rated capacity of 1.8 million metric tons of hot briquetted iron per year will be the largest single HBI module in the world.

The consortium with Siemens and Midrex is responsible for the process turn-key including engineering, manufacturing and supply of mechanical and electrical equipment and level 1 and level 2 automation. The Midrex direct reduction process was chosen for the LGOK’s second module in 2005 and now Metalloinvest has decided that its third HBI facility will also use proven Midrex technology to produce high quality HBI. The existing Midrex HBI plant, delivered by the consortium of Siemens and Midrex, began operation in 2007 and is currently the world’s largest briquetting module producing 1.4 Mtpy.

With the expansion Metalloinvest - the largest iron ore producer in Russia - meets the growing demand for hot briquetted iron in Russia, Europe, Asia and Middle East. Eduard Potapov, Chief Executive Officer of Metalloinvest, commented: “HBI production growth is one of the top priorities of Metalloinvest’s development strategy. Construction of the new plant will allow it to strengthen the Company’s positions on the global HBI market and significantly increase production volume of high value-added iron ore products”.

Iron ores, comprised mostly of magnetite, are first concentrated and processed to DR-grade pellets. These pellets are then fed into a Midrex furnace where they are reduced to metallic iron followed by discharging into hot-briquetting machines, producing HBI with a metallization degree exceeding 93 percent. The briquettes have an apparent density exceeding 5.0 g/cm3 and are well suited for transport due to the low quantity of fines generated during handling.