Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia:

O. B. Kolmachikhina, Senior Lecturer, Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Department, e-mail: o.b.kolmachikhina@urfu.ru
S. S. Naboychenko, Head of the Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Department
M. V. Boshnyak, Master’s Student, Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Department
A. R. Galimyanov, Master’s Student, Non-Ferrous Metallurgy Department

Oxidized nickel ore deposits are located in the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, and Orenburg regions (the Serovskoe, Sakharinskoe, and Buruktalskoe deposits). Internationally, to process oxidized nickel ores, plants apply ferronickel smelting, autoclave sulfuric acid leaching or Karon’s process. Regarding a material composition of ore bodies, the Urals deposits show a great difference. The Serov group of deposits located in the north of the Sverdlovsk region is the largest in the Urals and may provide 90% of raw materials to Urals nickel plants. Ores from the Urals deposits cannot be processed by the mentioned technologies due to either a complex composition of raw materials (hydrometallurgical methods), or resulting cobalt losses (ferronickel smelting). The paper describes an oxidized nickel ore processing method with hydrochloric acid for preliminary chlorination of ore. When treating ore with hydrochloric acid, oxides and hydroxides of nickel, cobalt, and iron are transformed into water soluble chlorides; as a result of further roasting, iron chlorides are transformed into hematite. Then during water leaching nickel and cobalt chlorides are transferred into the liquor, and iron remains in a filter cake. The present experiments aim to reveal how roasting parameters (process temperature and time) influence recovery of nickel, cobalt, and iron into the liquor in further leaching of the cake. To effect a maximum nickel transition into the liquor, a key factor is acid consumption, and with regard to a minimum iron transition into the liquor – roasting temperature and time. As compared to direct leaching liquors, after leaching with roasting, liquors do not require several stages of neutralization and settling, as their residual acidity is not high, but iron concentration in the liquor is about 10 times lower than nickel concentration.

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