The world's first suspension magnetic roasting equipment type NEUH-60 for ferriferous manganese ore developed by China's Northeastern University was put into use in Zambia, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The NEUH-60 achieved the required design standards with high refined iron and manganese ores recovery rate of 86.98 percent and 96.59 percent. 

Han Yuexin, professor of the Northeastern University, who leads the research and development team said that the project was headed by teachers and students from the university. 

"We started the building project of suspension magnetic roasting equipment with capacity of 600,000 tons per year from February 2020, and complete the equipment in Zambia in October by overcoming various difficulties including the COVID-19 pandemic and language barriers," said Han.

Wang Guoqing, research director at the Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center, told the Global Times that the NEUH-60 magnetic roasting equipment can significantly improve the local iron ore output. 

"NEUH-60 is very likely to be adopted by Chinese mining companies in Africa," said Wang. 

Wang also mentioned that the quality of iron ores from some African countries including Zambia is better than Australian iron ore.

According to China's financial information provider jin10.com, 62 percent of China's imported iron ore are from Australia during 2019 to 2020. 

Data from Beijing Lange Steel Information Research Center shows that China had imported 56.41 million tons of iron ores from Africa in 2020 with a year-on-year increase by 11.3 percent and took 4.6 percent of whole imported iron ore. 

"Now China is enhancing the development of African iron mines, when the necessary bedrock infrastructure is finished including highways and railways for transportation, it is possible for China to shake off its over-reliance for Australian iron ore," said Wang.

It was reported that NEUH-60 implements the second generation of magnetic roasting techniques which was specifically designed basing on previous research data and requirement of local enterprises. 

The research and development team also achieved advanced cooling techniques to turn down the temperature of layout from 300 C of the first generation magnetic roasting techniques to under 80 C, which significantly reduces energy consumption.