How manganese is made
Nearly all manganese goes into steel, where it grabs sulfur and oxygen that would otherwise make the steel brittle.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 9
- raw sources
- 7
- steps from the ground
- 2
The short version
Manganese is mined as pyrolusite and other ores, crushed, and most of it is smelted with iron ore and carbon into ferromanganese, 30 to 80 percent manganese, for steelmaking. Pure manganese for iron-free alloys is made by leaching ore with sulfuric acid and plating the metal out by electrowinning.
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Dig the ore
The main ore is pyrolusite, manganese dioxide, which is dark brown to black. About 80 percent of the known manganese resource lies in South Africa, mostly in the Kalahari field near Hotazel.
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Crush and grind
Ore is crushed and ground so that smelting or acid can reach every grain. For heap-leach routes the ore is ground to between 150 and 250 micrometers.
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Smelt with iron ore and carbon
To make ferromanganese, the ore is mixed with iron ore and carbon and reduced in a blast furnace or an electric arc furnace. The product holds 30 to 80 percent manganese.
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Tap the alloy
Molten ferromanganese is run off and cast, then broken up for steelmakers who add it to ladles to fix sulfur and remove oxygen.
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Leach in sulfuric acid
For iron-free manganese, ore is leached with sulfuric acid so that the manganese goes into solution. A different route reduces low-grade ore with natural gas at at least 850 °C so that it can be leached.
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Plate it out
The solution goes to an electrowinning plant, where an electric current deposits pure manganese metal.
Worth repeating
- Manganese in steel fixes sulfur, removes oxygen and adds strength, and steelmaking accounts for 85 to 90 percent of demand.
- Beverage cans are usually made from aluminum alloys 3004 and 3104, which hold 0.8 to 1.5 percent manganese.
- Cave paintings at Gargas, 30,000 to 24,000 years old, are made from manganese dioxide pigment.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and manganese starts as these 7 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
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Where it comes from
- South Africa3.4 million tons, the largest producer
2011, manganese ore produced.
Where it goes next
Manganese feeds 4 lines directly and reaches 158 things in total.
Further down the line
Keep walking
Sources
Cite this page: "How manganese is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/manganese