Saint Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia:

Talovina I. V., Professor, Doctor of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences, Head of the Department of Historical and Dynamic Geology, talovina@spmi.ru
Alexandrova T. N., Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Mineral Processing Department

TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany:
Heide G. G., Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Chair of Mineralogy, Director of the Institute of Mineralogy

Lieberwirth H., Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Chair of Mineral Processing Machines, Director of the Institute of Mineral Processing Machines

In Russia oxide-silicate supergene nickel deposits require a revision of technological schemes of extraction of useful components in order to improve profitability and the integrated use of the objects of the mineral resource base in the developed mining province of the Ural region. The most important industrial mineral of supergene nickel ore is so-called garnierite. The X-ray and other data suggest that this substance includes several mineral phases, mostly silicates and hydrosilicates of nickel and magnesium. We studied this substance in еру ores of the Cheremshan, Sinar, Elov, Sakhara, and Buruktal deposits based on chemical, thermal, and X-ray phase analysis data. The analysis of the mineralogical and geochemical composition of the ores also shows that these ores meet the criteria of selective disintegration. The different characteristics of the rocks and ores in supergene deposits call for a selective processing of the various ore containing constituents to make metal production efficient. In particular, the wet and sticky laterites should be separated from solid serpentinites, allowing a separate processing of both. Since the transition zone, containing both materials may be rather wide, an efficient separation technology shall be applied. Then the serpentinite rocks can be further processed separately from the clayey laterites. Analysis of the obtained results shows that the use of vertical roller mill saves 25% of the collector or allows achieving the same recovery in a third of time at the same reagent costs.

Research is executed by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 15-17-00017).

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