Ferroalloys - alloys of iron with other elements (Cr, Si, Mn, Ti, etc.), used mainly for deoxidation and alloying of steel (for example, ferrochromium, ferrosilicon). Ferroalloys also conditionally include some alloys containing iron only in the form of impurities (silicocalcium, silicomanganese, etc.), and some metals and non-metals (Mn, Cr, Si) with a minimum content of impurities. It is obtained from ores or concentrates in electric furnaces, by the metallothermic method, by the blast furnace method, by the electrolytic method, or by special methods (in smelting mines (forges)).
As a rule, the cost of metal in the form of a ferroalloy is lower than its cost in its pure form. This is due, in particular, to the fact that the ore usually contains - in one form or another - iron, which, during processing, turns into an alloy along with the main component, and the technological scheme for producing a ferroalloy turns out to be one of the shortest and cheapest ways to process raw materials. At the same time, in order to obtain a pure alloy, it is necessary to introduce additional stages into the technology, which complicate the process and increase costs. In this case, the production of ferrous metal can either be completely excluded or be one of the intermediate stages, when the resulting conversion ferroalloy is processed into pure metal.