Abstract: Metallic iron nuggets made by reducing-melt of a material containing a carbonaceous reductant and a metal-oxide-containing material, the metallic iron nuggets comprising at least 94% by mass, hereinafter denoted as “%”, of Fe and 1.0 to 4.5% of C, and having a diameter of 1 to 30 mm are disclosed.

Abstract: Finely divided material, such as flue dust from a steel making furnace, is processed to reclaim constituents. The material in hopper (11) is pelletized. The pellets are dried in a dryer (16) and fed to a first rotary kiln (21) where they are sintered to provide very hard pellets, during which process volatile constituents are driven off and collected. The sintered pellets are screened to remove finely divided material and fed with reductant, such as finely divided washed anthracite (35), to a second rotary kiln (31). Reduction of the pellets causes a second constituent to be driven off and the second constituent is then oxidized in the kiln and collected as finely divided oxide. The original pellets retain their integrity and become essentially sponge iron.