Company “Nornickel” , Polar Division, Norilsk, Russia:

A. I. Yuriev, Director of the Center for Engineering Support of Production, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Assistant Professor, e-mail: yurevai@nornik.ru
V. V. Muraviev, Chief Engineer, Nadezhdinsky Metallurgical Plant named after B. I. Kolesnikov
A. F. Petrov, Head of a Laboratory, Center for Engineering Support of Production
L. Yu. Brusnichkina-Kirillova, Chief Specialist, Center for Engineering Support of Production

Laboratory studies and commercial tests aimed at examination of floatation separation of nickel slag from the Smelting Shop of Copper Plant to obtain nickel and copper concentrates were carried out in order to optimize the dry coagulated nickel slag processing flowsheet at Nornickel Polar Division. Laboratory studies proved that floatation separation of the actual coagulated NS from Copper Plant (~10% Ni, ~19% Cu, ~31% Fe, ~4% S) using potassium butyl xanthate as collecting agent and T-92 as frother allows to produce ~62% Cu concentrate with distribution of ~82%. Mass fraction of nickel in the copper concentrate equals 8.5%, distribution coefficient is ~22%. The content of nickel in NC yielding 74.5% equals to 10.5% and that of copper equals to 4.7%, nickel recovery being 78%. The selectivity index of the described floatation mode was 160%. Commercial tests carried out at the HML of Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant showed that processing NS from Copper Plant with average content of Cu 18%, Ni 12%, Fe 30%, S 5.5% results in the mass fraction of copper in the copper concentrate yielding 21% averaging 56% and mass fraction of nickel averaging 14%. The distribution ratio in the copper concentrate is 66% for copper and 25% for nickel. The distribution of nickel in nickel concentrate is 76% and that of copper is 34% with Ni and Cu content of 11 and 8%, respectively. Selectivity index value corresponds to 141%. The tests showed that floatation separation of NS using the HML standby equipment of Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant is feasible and has no negative effect on the related operations. Extra copper concentrate is being transferred to Copper Plant for processing in the Vanyukov’s furnaces. Based on the test results, the implementation of the flowsheet of floatation separation of nickel slag from Copper Plant has been scheduled at Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant.

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