Effect of reduction temperature and sodium-based additives on nickel upgrading process of laterites ores

International Seminar on Metallurgy and Materials

Shofi, A.^1 ; Rahmahwati, A.^2 ; Nurjaman, F.^1 ; Suharno, B.^2

Research Unit for Mineral Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jl. Ir. Sutami Km. 15 Tanjung Bintang, South Lampung, Lampung, Indonesia^1

Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia^2

关键词: Chemical compositions;    Energy dispersive X ray spectroscopy;    Nickel grades;    Nickel laterite;    Nickel recovery;    Reduction temperatures;    Selective reduction;    X ray fluorescence;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/541/1/012002/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/541/1/012002

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

In this present work, the selective reduction of nickel laterite was conducted by using 10 wt. % of sodium carbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulphate as additives. The 5 wt. % of palm shell charcoal was used as the reductant. The selective reduction process for nickel laterite was carried out from 950°C to 1150°C for 60 minutes followed by wet magnetic separation using 500 Gausses permanent magnet. The characterization of reduced ore was performed by X-Ray Diffraction, optical microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy, while the chemical composition of concentrate or ferronickel was identified by X-Ray Fluorescence. The results showed that the nickel grade was increased with the increasing of reduction temperature for nickel ore with sodium sulfate additive. Nevertheless, it was relatively constant for sodium carbonate and sodium chloride additive. Nickel recoveries found increased with the increasing of reduction temperatures of nickel ore with sodium-based additives. The ferronickel particle was agglomerated and growth with the increasing of reduction temperature, thus it provided favourable conditions for the separation of ferronickel from impurities in the magnetic separation process.