Abstract
Conventional reductants have been and are still being used for most of the
high temperature reduction processes. However, new reductants are being sought for.
Macadamia nut shells were used as reductant in this investigation and their effect on the
slag. Cassiterite containing Nb and Ta have been used in this investigation. The basicity
of the feed was kept at 1 through the addition of CaO-bearing material as a flux. The
raw macadamia nut shells were characterized using proximate and ultimate analysis,
XRF, XRD, SEM-EDS and FTIR. The ore and flux were analyzed using XRF, XRD
and SEM-EDS. Experiments were conducted using an alumina tube furnace. The
temperature was set at 1450 oC, a graphite crucible placed into a silica crucible was used
for the experiments. Reduced products were characterized and compared to the products
currently obtained using conventional reductants. Products obtained when raw
macadamia nut shells were used and when using coke were compared. Results show
that macadamia nut shells present great potential to use as reductants in tin industry on
condition of further investigations on optimization. The slag produced presented a more
needle-like structure as opposed to the conventional process that presented a glassy slag.