Driving Profitability in Iron Ore Beneficiation
M. G. Shiva Shankara is an iron-ore and raw-material handling professional with over 19 years of experience in the steel and power industries. He brings extensive integrated plant-operation experience, combining raw material handling system (RMHS) operations with beneficiation, material handling, project execution, commissioning, troubleshooting, and operational optimization. Having spent over 17 years at JSW Steel’s Vijayanagar Works and currently serving as Project Head at Resource Pellet Concentrate Pvt. Ltd. (RPCL), part of the BKG Group, he has developed deep expertise in plant performance, cost optimization, process safety, and total quality management. His achievements include commissioning more than 123 conveyors and stabilizing a 5.75 MTPA sinter plant. In this article, Mr. Shankara shares practical insights into improving the efficiency and profitability of iron ore beneficiation, grinding, pelletizing, and material handling operations. He explains why understanding ore characteristics, optimizing grinding circuits, and maintaining consistent feed quality are essential to reliable plant performance. The discussion explores how technologies such as high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR), ball mills, and tower mills can be aligned with ore properties to improve processing efficiency. The article also examines the trade-offs between pellet quality, plant availability, throughput, and cost per tonne, alongside strategies for reducing material handling bottlenecks, improving equipment reliability, and strengthening maintenance practices. Drawing on his project execution experience, Shankara highlights how early-stage engineering decisions influence long-term operational outcomes. For investors and industry leaders, these insights provide a practical framework for evaluating capacity expansion, capital expenditure, resource efficiency, and sustainable productivity in iron ore processing and steelmaking. The central takeaway is that lasting profitability comes from optimizing the entire process, not simply increasing production capacity.
Q1. As iron ore grades decline, what operational strategies have you found most effective for improving beneficiation performance while controlling processing costs?
From what I’ve seen, when ore grades start to drop, it’s not enough to just ramp up plant capacity or use more reagents and energy. Instead, the most important thing is to really understand the variability of the ore and then optimize the entire beneficiation circuit based on the true characteristics of the material.
I usually break this approach down into five key stages:
• Ore characterization and blending
• Effective size classification and scrubbing
• Recovery versus grade optimization
• Energy optimization
• Control the process through KPIs
The goal isn’t just to get the highest possible Fe grade—it’s to maximize the amount of economically recoverable iron that meets the required product specifications.
Q2. Having worked with HPGR, tower mills and ball mills, where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve grinding efficiency and Fe recovery in challenging ores?
In my view, the real opportunity isn’t about picking one grinding technology over another—it’s about designing the grinding circuit to match the ore’s competency, the required liberation size, and what the downstream recovery process actually needs.
When …
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