Until the 1950s of the last century, the oxidized iron ores that were loaded into the blast furnace had granulometries within 10 and 120 mm. However, the depletion of highgrade iron ore sources has made necessary the utilization of concentration processes with the purpose of enriching the iron ore. Because of these processes, a fine granulometry is produced, and thus iron agglomeration process is necessary. There are several agglomeration processes including: briquetting, extrusion, nodulization, pelletizing and sintering, although pelletizing and sintering are the most widely used, and especially sintering process (70% blast furnace load). Apart from obtaining an agglomerated product, the objective is reaching the suitable characteristics (thermal, mechanical, physical, and chemical) in a product that is then fed into the blast furnace, achieving a homogenous and stable operation in this furnace with economical profitability.

Solar energy when properly concentrated offers a great potential in high temperature applications as those required in metallurgical processes. Even when concentrated solar energy cannot compete with conventional metallurgical processes, it could find application in the treatment of wastes from these processes. These by-products are characterized by their high metallic contents, which make them interesting as they could be a raw material available in the own factory. Slags are one of these by-products. Slags are most of them disposed in controlled landfill with environmental impact, but also with economic impact associated to the storing costs and the metallic losses. Here we propose the treatment of ferromanganese and silicomanganese slags with concentrated solar energy with the purpose of evaluating the recovery of manganese from these slags.

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