Institut Gipronikel, Saint Petersburg, Russia:

M. I. Kalashnikova, Head of the Hydrometallurgy Laboratory, e-mail: KalashnikovaMI@nornik.ru
L. B. Tsymbulov, Principal Researcher at the Pyrometallurgy Laboratory, e-mail: TsymbulovLB@nornik.ru

Ural Federal University. Institute of New Materials and Technology at UrFU, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

S. S. Naboychenko, Professor at the Department of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, e-mail: osanis@mail.ru
O. B. Kolmachikhina, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy, e-mail: o.b.kolmachikhina@urfu.ru

The world’s nickel producers rely on the use of sulphide and oxidized nickel ores, which can vary greatly in terms of their characteristics and cost effectiveness. The Russian Federation is the world’s leading nickel producer, and it is currently exploiting copper and nickel sulphide ore deposits. At the same time, the country houses a considerable amount of oxidized nickel ores (ONOs), which are almost out of industrial use at the moment. At the same time, such ores serve as the main source of nickel abroad, and foreign countries have a vast experience of developing such deposits, and research is ongoing on the subject. One of the major issues related to the poor effectiveness of known techniques for processing ONOs found in Russia is a low concentration of nickel in such ores. This limits the applicability of certain solutions. It would be interesting to compare different ONO processing techniques and analyse their applicability to the deposits found in the Urals. The paper points out that, regardless of numerous pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes applicable to ONOs, developing new processes remains an important task, especially in application to the ONOs found in the Urals. Such new process should be able to yield high-grade nickel and cobalt products, make use of high-iron and high-magnesium ores, and ensure maximum recovery of commercial nickel and cobalt. The most promising process applicable to the ONOs found in the Urals includes either nitric acid leaching with further processing of leaching solutions or the use of combination processing schemes.

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