1. Introduction
Manganese is an important constituent of mild/carbon
steel, stainless steel, and other alloys of manganese. The
demand for manganese is increasing in parallel with the
demand for steel, whereas high-grade manganese ores are
being depleted. Thus, proper utilization of the available resources
is a major challenge for the mining and minerals
industry. However, the generation of large quantities of
low-grade manganese ore as fines during mining and the
size-grading of high-grade manganese ores have resulted in
the accumulation of large amounts of inferior-quality ore
that is being dumped at mine sites, resulting in space constraints
and environmental problems [1−2]. Manganese ore
deposits in India occur as bedded sedimentary deposits and
are found predominantly in the states of Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha.