Ni-Co 2021: The 5th International Symposium on Nickel and Cobalt: Hydormetallurgy I
Sponsored by: The Metallurgy & Materials Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, TMS Extraction and Processing Division, TMS: Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee, TMS: Pyrometallurgy Committee
Program Organizers: Corby Anderson, Colorado School of Mines; Dean Gregurek, RHI Magnesita; Mari Lundström, Aalto University; Christina Meskers, SINTEF; Prabhat Tripathy, Batelle Energy Alliance (Idaho National Laboratory); Fiseha Tesfaye, Metso Metals Oy, Åbo Akademi University; Yuanbo Zhang, Central South University; Sari Muinonen, Glencore; Graeme Goodall, XPS- Glencore; Shijie Wang, Coeur Mining, Inc
Tuesday 8:30 AM
March 16, 2021
Room: RM 43
Location: TMS2021 Virtual
8:30 AM
Alkaline Leaching of Nickel from Electric Arc Furnace Dust Using Ammonia-ammonium Glutamate as Lixiviant: Erik Prasetyo1; 1Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is a potential secondary source of nickel (Ni). Although Ni content (0.5%) is much lower than traditional ore i.e. laterites, EAFD as raw material has advantage in terms of straightforward processing. It was demonstrated that Ni could directly recovered from EAFD by leaching using glutamate in alkaline condition. In this study, ammonia-ammonium glutamate system as lixiviant would be tested for Ni recovery in terms of kinetic under different leaching parameters, which include stirring speed, oxidant concentration (H2O2), ammonia concentration, glutamic acid concentration and temperature. The results demonstrated that stirring speed had negative effect on Ni rate dissolution. Addition of H2O2 substantially increased the rate since the addition imparted oxidative condition, which was favorable for Ni dissolution. Kinetic modelling using several models indicated the dissolution process was affected by interface transfer and diffusion. Calculated activation energy indicated the effect of temperature on Ni leaching was minimal.
8:50 AM
Chemical Leaching of Inactive Gold Mine Tailings as Secondary Source of Cobalt and Nickel – A Preliminary Case Study: Marouen Jouini1; Lucie Coudert1; Mathilde Perrin2; 1UQAT; 2Université de Lorraine
Tailings from inactive gold mine sites represent a potential secondary source of precious and strategic metals including Co and Ni but also tailings that are not yet successfully restored. Three different mine tailings from Cobalt Mining Camp (Canada) were used. Preliminary chemical leaching were conduced with inorganic acids (HCl, H2SO4 and HNO3) to solubilize Co and Ni at different concentrations (0.01 – 0.5 N). The influence of the number of the leaching steps on the recovery of Co and Ni was also evaluated. Promising concentrations of Co (0.7%) and Ni (0.3%) were reported in S1, while lower concentrations were measured in S2 and S3 (0.02-0.1%), requiring pre-concentration steps before leaching. More than 90% of both Co and Ni were solubilized from S1 after only 30 min using H2SO4 (0.25N) at room temperature. Additional experiments are required to optimize operating conditions in terms of Co and Ni recoveries and operating costs.
9:10 AM
Microbial Leaching for Recovery of Nickel & Cobalt from Lateritic Ore, A Review: Lala Behari Sukla1; Archana Pattanaik1; DP Krishna Samal1; Debabrata Pradhan; 1Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan
The use of heterotrophic fungi (strains of Aspergillus and Penicillium) and bacteria (strains of Bacillus and Pseudomona) for metal recovery have been extensively studied. However, in case of nickel recovery from lateritic ores, strains of Aspergillus and Penicillium are the most preferred microorganisms. Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans a chemolithotrophic bacterium has been reported to solubilize nickel from lateritic ore by microbial reductive method. Recent study reported about the use of DIRB (Dissimilatory Iron Reducing Bacteria) in bio-reduction of lateritic chromite overburden (COB) and enhancement in nickel and cobalt recovery. Subsequent leaching of DIRB pre-treated ore by H2SO4 results in enhanced recovery of nickel and cobalt. Further work is required to better understand the bioleaching process and identification of more efficient microbial strains. Keywords: Laterite ores, Chromite overburden, Sukinda valley, Bioleaching, Heterotrophic microbes, Chemolithotrophic microbes, DIRB
9:30 AM
Sulfuric Acid Leaching for Low-nickel Matte under Atmospheric Pressure: Wanhai Xiao1; Fenglong Sun1; Xuheng Liu1; Zhongwei Zhao1; 1Central South University
This research focuses on leaching low-nickel matte through sulfuric acid under atmospheric pressure, in which the Ni/Fe/Co enter into solution, noble elements and Cu2S remain in the residue, and the sulfur in Ni/Fe/Co sulfide is converted to H2S. The subsequent process can be divided into three parts: (1) Fe in the solution is removed by forming hematite or goethite and Ni/Co is separated by organophosphorus extractants; (2) the noble elements and Cu2S are further treated in copper smelting process; (3) H2S is transformed into sulfur by Claus process. Compared with pyrometallurgy for copper-nickel sulfide ores, this method has many advantages, such as low equipment requirement for the atmospheric leaching, high recovery for noble elements and cobalt, convenient storage of sulfur than sulfuric acid, and producing nickel sulfate directly which has higher value than nickel metal. The whole process achieves the comprehensive utilization of low-nickel matte with technical and economic benefits.