Research of Possibility of Processing of Oxidized Nickel Ore by Chloride Sublimation Roasting Technology

Abstract

Oxidized nickel ores (ONO) contain most of the world's nickel reserves. However, choice of a cost-effe nickel ore processing technology is difficult due to the dispersed distribution of nickel compounds in refractory minerals, low nickel content, presence of a large amounts of consuming host rocks, and impossibility of beneficiation by conventional physicochemical methods. The paper presents studies on the ONO processing technology by means of chloride sublimation roasting. Sodium and calcium chlorides were used as chlorinating agents both individually and in various ratios. It has been shown that roasting allows for nickel and cobalt conversion into chloride form followed by selective distillation of the resulting compounds into the gas phase by 89 - 90% at a roasting temperature of 1100 C. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.