Present Status of Direct Production of Iron and Steel from Ores

PROCESSES for the direct production of iron and steel from ores are hardy perennials, and new processes and revivals of old ones are continually being brought to the attention of the investing public if not to the attention of metallurgists. Direct production of iron and steel is so simple that it offers a fertile field for the promoter. Unfortunately in this way direct processes have acquired a bad name, not always deserved, with conservative capitalists and metallurgists. Direct processes cannot, except in special instances, be looked upon as a substitute for any single operation in present iron and steel practice but must be considered, as one link in an entirely new chain of metallurgical process from ore to finished steel. Thus it is, in my opinion, inadvisable to consider the use of sponge-iron processes as a means of treating ore of ordinary blast-furnace grade to produce open-hearth feed. In time I think it will be found equally inadvisable to smelt iron-ore concentrates in the blast furnace.