Direct smelting process and apparatus

A molten bath-based process for direct smelting metalliferous material and producing molten metal in a direct smelting vessel having a vessel floor and an upper region, which process comprises injecting a solid metalliferous material and a solid carbonaceous material through at least one pair of opposed injection lances extending downwardly and inwardly into a molten bath in the direct smelting vessel with longitudinal axes of the lances in the pair of opposed lances intersecting within a top three quarters of a metal layer in the molten bath, as measured from the vessel floor, and selecting momentum and/or velocity of the injected material to penetrate the molten bath and to coalesce in the molten bath below a nominal interface of molten metal and molten slag in the molten bath under quiescent conditions, whereby plumes of injected material from the lances overlap in a central region of a metal layer in the molten bath and the metalliferous material at least substantially melts in the metal layer and there is upward movement of molten material and gas from the central region of the metal layer.