The document describes the upgrading process of laterite ores. Laterite ores contain hydrated iron oxides and magnesium silicates formed from weathered peridotite rocks. The upgrading process involves crushing and separating the ore to reject nickel-lean materials, increasing the nickel content. Upgrading benefits subsequent smelting or leaching by reducing processing requirements and costs.
The document describes the upgrading process of laterite ores. Laterite ores contain hydrated iron oxides and magnesium silicates formed from weathered peridotite rocks. The upgrading process involves crushing and separating the ore to reject nickel-lean materials, increasing the nickel content. Upgrading benefits subsequent smelting or leaching by reducing processing requirements and costs.
The document describes the upgrading process of laterite ores. Laterite ores contain hydrated iron oxides and magnesium silicates formed from weathered peridotite rocks. The upgrading process involves crushing and separating the ore to reject nickel-lean materials, increasing the nickel content. Upgrading benefits subsequent smelting or leaching by reducing processing requirements and costs.
The document describes the upgrading process of laterite ores. Laterite ores contain hydrated iron oxides and magnesium silicates formed from weathered peridotite rocks. The upgrading process involves crushing and separating the ore to reject nickel-lean materials, increasing the nickel content. Upgrading benefits subsequent smelting or leaching by reducing processing requirements and costs.
The first step in the processing of laterites deposits is the upgrading of the ore. The upgraded ore is then smelted to ferronickel or processed to nickel in a hydrometallurgical refinery. The objectives of this chapter are the following: (a) to describe laterite ores and their mineralogy; (b) to describe the upgrading of laterite ore; and, (c) to indicate the benefits of upgrading to subsequent smelting or leaching operations.
3.1. LATERITE ORES
3.1.1. Laterite Profile Laterite ores are a heterogeneous mixture of hydrated iron oxides and hydrous magnesium silicates. These deposits were formed by weathering of peridotite rocks. Peridotite consists mainly of olivine [(Mg,Fe)2SiO4] with a small amount of pyroxene [(Mg,Fe)2Si2O6]. Water, containing organic acids and carbon dioxide, percolates down through the weathered material. Iron, nickel, magnesium and silica dissolve in this water. Toward the top of the deposit, iron is oxidized by air and precipitates as hydrated iron oxides, such as goethite. Nickel and cobalt co-precipitate with the iron, substituting for iron in the structure of goethite. The term ‘limonite’ is usually used to describe this part of the laterite deposit. Closer to the bedrock, magnesium and silica precipitate, forming magne- sium silicates of the serpentine group, such as Mg3Si2O5(OH)4. Nickel precipitates as nepouite [Ni3Si2O5(OH)4]. Mixtures of these two minerals are called garnierite. Other minerals found in this layer are as follows: (i) talc [Mg3Si4O10(OH)2] and willemseite [(Ni,Mg)3Si4O10(OH)2]; (ii) clinochlore [(Mg,Fe)5Al(Si3Al)O10(OH)8] and nimite [(Ni,Mg,Al)6(Si,Al)4O10(OH)8] and (iii) sepiolite [Mg4Si6O15(OH)2 6H2O] and falcondite [(Ni,Mg)4Si6O15(OH)2 6H2O]. This layer of the laterite is frequently referred to as ‘saprolite’. There may be a third layer of clay material. These clays generally belong to the group of minerals called smectites. An example of a clay mineral found in
Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum-Group Metals. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-08-096809-4.10003-6
Copyright Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 39 40 PART | I Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel and Cobalt
Approximate analysis (%)
Laterite Profile Common Name Minerals Fe Mg0 Ni Co Goethite >50 <0.5 <0.8 <0.1 Hydrated Fe0(0H) 40–50 0.5–5 0.8–1.5 0.1–0.2 Nontronite 10–30 5–15 0.6–2 0.02–0.1 Increase in depth 0–20 m
FIGURE 3.1 An idealized profile of a laterite deposit. At the surface, the iron content is high and the MgO content is low. With increasing depth, this position reverses so that at the bottom of the deposit, the MgO content is high and the iron content is low. Ferricrete is a hard layer of soil cemented by iron oxides.
nickel laterites is nontronite. Clays can be present in either the limonite or
saprolite layers or may be present as a separate and distinct layer. An idealized profile of a laterite deposit is shown in Figure 3.1. It is emphasized that these layers are not necessarily distinct. Rather, there is a continuous variation with depth.
3.1.2. Mineralogy of Nickeliferous Laterites
The limonite layer is generally uniform, composed mainly of goethite. In contrast, the saprolite layer is very heterogeneous. It is composed of a variety of silicates, such as serpentines, talcs, chlorites and sepiolites.
3.2. UPGRADING OF LATERITE ORES1
The ore type and metal contained in the ore are summarized in Table 3.1 for several operating mines. Laterite ores that are mined typically contain 1.3%–2.5% Ni. Saprolite ores are notably richer in nickel than limonite ores. The weathered material in the laterite deposit is generally soft and enriched in nickel, whereas the unweathered precursor rock is hard and lean in nickel.
1. The term upgrading is used for this treatment. Concentrating is reserved for a separation process that specifically targets a particular physical or chemical property. As a result, magnetic separation produces a magnetic concentrate because the magnetic property of the minerals is targeted. Similarly, with flotation, which targets the hydrophobicity of the sulfide minerals. This is not to say that upgrading is insignificant. Chapter | 3 Upgrading of Laterite Ores 41
TABLE 3.1 The Concentrations of Nickel and Cobalt in the Laterite
Ores from Operating Mines. The saprolite ores are mostly smelted to ferronickel. The limonite ores are mostly leached
Mine Location Predominant ore typea Ni, % Co, %
Murrin-Murrin Australia L, SM 1.2 0.08
Onca Puma Brazil S 1.7
Cerro Matoso Colombia S 2.3
Moa Bay Cuba L 1.3 0.14
Nicaro Cuba L 1.3 0.1
Punta Gorda Cuba L 1.3 0.10
Larco Greece L 1.3 0.06
PT Antam Indonesia S 2.4
PT Inco Indonesia S 2.0
Ambatovy Madagascar M 1.3 0.11
Koniambo New Caledonia S 2.5
Nepoui New Caledonia S 1.8
Coral Bay Philippines L 1.3 0.09
Loma de Niquel Venezuela S 1.5
S ¼ saprolite; L ¼ limonite; SM ¼ smectite; M ¼ mixed.
a
The ores also contain hard by-products of laterization that are lean in nickel, such as quartz. The nickel content of the mined ores is upgraded by (a) crushing and/or grinding the ore; (b) separating small, soft, nickel-rich particles from larger, hard, nickel-lean particles by using screens, hydrocyclones and spiral classifiers; and, (c) rejecting the nickel-lean material to waste. The advantage of these upgrading steps is that it cheaply rejects nickel-lean minerals by physical means rather than expensively removing them chemically by smelting or leaching. Upgrading also has the advantage that it often rejects minerals, such as magnesium-rich olivine (Mg,Fe)2SiO4, that adversely affect subsequent smelting (Doyle, 2004) or leaching (Tuffrey, Chalkley, Collins, & Iglesias, 2009). 42 PART | I Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel and Cobalt
FIGURE 3.2 Upgraded saprolite ore from New Caledonian, containing about 3% Ni. This material has been upgraded from ore containing 1.8% Ni. It is destined to be smelted and refined to produce ferronickel, containing 30% Ni and 70% Fe, which is used mainly for making stainless steel. Source: Photograph courtesy of Socie´te´ Le Nickel-SLN/Eramet.
3.3. EXTENT OF UPGRADING
Recently installed upgrading plants produce upgraded ores with up to twice the nickel content of the original ore. The feed material for Nepoui mine in New Caledonia, for example, is an ore that contains 1.8% Ni (Le Nickel, 2005). The upgraded product contains 3% Ni. The upgraded ore is shown in Figure 3.2. The upgrading methods and the extents of upgrading at four laterite mines are given in Table 3.2.
3.4. ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION FOR UPGRADING LATERITES
The economic justification for upgrading is that, per tonne of nickel, less material has to be transported and smelted or leached. This lowers the energy and reagents requirements, the equipment needed for shipping, smelting and leaching and the effluents produced while increasing the production rate of a given plant expressed as tonnes of nickel per year. All of these factors result in lower costs for the production of nickel. The downside of the upgrading of the laterite ore is the loss of nickel in the rejected material from the upgrading plant. This loss is the consequence of (i) the intrinsic nickel content of the rejected minerals and (ii) the accidental loss of some nickel-rich minerals with the rejects. Each mine must balance the benefits of upgrading against these losses. Chapter | 3 Upgrading of Laterite Ores 43
TABLE 3.2 Methods for Upgrading Laterite Ores.
The ravensthorpe and new caledonian plants work with very fine particles (~75 mm) and achieve considerable upgrading. Falcondo and coral bay work with larger particles and achieve limited upgrading
Nickel in Nickel in upgraded Mine ore, % ore, % Method of upgrading Reference
Ravensthorpe, 1 2 Makes oreewater slurry by Adams
Australia scrubbing in rotating rotary et al., 2004 scrubbers and attritioners, Figure 3.3. Separates small Ni-rich particles from large, Ni-lean particles in the slurry by means of screens, hydrocyclones and spiral classifiers. Reject particles are typically >75 mm in size.
Falcondo, 1.2 1.4 Ore is passed through Mast, Fanas,
Dominican wobbler feeders and a ball Frias, & Republic mill. Product is screened. Ortiz, 2005 Pieces larger than 0.01 m are rejected to tailings.
Nepoui and 1.8 3 Ore slurried with water. Le Nickel,
Tiebaghi Small, Ni-rich particles 2008 mines, New separated from large Ni-lean Caledonia particles by screening, hydrocyclones and filters. Principle: small, low-density particles are richer in Ni than large, dense particles. Particle sizes estimated to be ~50 mm.
Coral Bay, 1.26 ~1.5 Ore is screened, vigorously Nakai,
Philippines washed then screened several Kawata, more times. Only <2-mm Kyoda, & particles go forward to Tsuchida, leaching. 2006
3.5. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF UPGRADING LATERITES
All upgrading of laterites is based on the principle that laterized nickel minerals, such as goethite and garnierite, are softer than the unlaterized precursors, such as olivine, and the hard products of laterization that are lean in nickel, such as quartz. 44 PART | I Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel and Cobalt
FIGURE 3.3 Flowsheet used at Ravensthorpe for upgrading laterite ore from 1% Ni to 2% Ni. Small, soft, nickel-rich particles are scrubbed from nickel-lean large, hard particles in rotating scrubbers and attritioners. The particles are then separated from each other with screens, hydro- cyclones and spiral classifiers. The small nickel-rich particles are typically ~75 mm diameter. A general rule is that small, low-density particles are richer in nickel than large, dense particles. Ravensthorpe is temporarily closed. It reportedly reached full production just before closure. Chapter | 3 Upgrading of Laterite Ores 45
This means that crushing and grinding at the correct intensity can produce relatively small particles that are rich in nickel and larger particles that are lean in nickel. These different sized particles can then be separated using screens, filters, hydrocyclones and other size classifiers.
3.5.1. Industrial Flowsheet
A schematic diagram of the flowsheet for the upgrading of the ore at Ravensthorpe in Australia is shown in Figure 3.3. This plant produced upgra- ded ore containing 2% Ni from an ore containing 1% Ni. The process entails two operations: (i) scrubbing and (ii) classification. At this mine, no grinding was required.
3.5.2. Industrial Equipment
Some particles in saprolite ore deposits consist of an unlaterized, hard core and a laterized, soft weathered skin. A piece of dunite rock that is partially laterized is shown in Figure 3.4. The core is lean in nickel, while the skin is rich in nickel.
FIGURE 3.4 Partially laterized dunite rock, consisting mainly of olivine [(Mg,Ni)2SiO4]. The outer skin is typically garnierite [(Mg,Ni)3Si4O5(OH)4]. Garnierite can be removed from the dunite by gentle crushing and grinding. Source: Photograph by W.G. Davenport. 46 PART | I Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel and Cobalt
Upgrading this material requires that the weathered skin be broken into small pieces without breaking up the nickel-lean core. This requires controlled grinding such as that provided by an autogenous mill with a small diameter. Some deposits are already made up of fine particles (Adams et al., 2004). In this case, the fine particles need only be scrubbed off the larger particles and then screened and cycloned to separate them from the nickel-lean oversize particles. Rotating-drum scrubbers and attritioners are used for this scrubbing.
3.6. EVALUATION All laterite orebodies are different. For this reason, every ore must be thor- oughly tested to determine the extent to which it can be upgraded. The strongest advocate of upgrading is Le Nickel in New Caledonia – and they are somewhat secretive about their upgrading processes. It is believed that their final 3% Ni upgraded ore is obtained by filtering very fine waste rock from even finer garnierite particles.
3.7. SUMMARY Laterite ores are always upgraded before smelting or leaching. Upgrading of these ores entails the following steps: (a) gently crushing and/or grinding the ore; and, (b) separating the resulting small, soft, low-density nickel-rich laterized mineral particles from the large, hard, dense, nickel-lean, unlaterized precursor rock and by-product laterization products, such as quartz. Upgrading minimizes the amount of material that has to be transported, smelted and/or leached per tonne of product nickel. It thereby minimizes the energy, reagent and equipment requirements for shipping, smelting and leaching, and the gas, liquid and solid effluents that are produced.
REFERENCES Adams, M., van der Meulen, D., Czerny, C., et al. (2004). Piloting of the beneficiation and EPAL circuits for Ravensthorpe nickel operations. In W. P. Imrie, D. M. Lane & S. C. C. Barnett, et al. (Eds.), International Laterite Nickel Symposium 2004, Process Development for Prospective Projects (pp. 193–202). Warrendale, Pa: TMS. Doyle, C. (2004). The steps required to meet production targets at PT Inco, Indonesia: A new innovative business strategy. In W. P. Imrie, D. M. Lane & S. C. C. Barnett (Eds.), Interna- tional Laterite Nickel Symposium 2004 (pp. 667–684). Warrendale, Pa: TMS. Nickel, Le (2005). Les mineurs, ces chercheurs d’or, remuent des montagnes pur trouver le pre- cieux nickel. Jour et Nuit, Le Nickel, New Caledonia. August 1, 2005. Le Nickel (2008). Les unites de traitement du minerai. January 17, 2008. Accessed at http:// www.sln.nc/content/view/76/44/lang,french/ on May 19, 2011. Chapter | 3 Upgrading of Laterite Ores 47
Mast, E. D., Fanas, J. J., Frias, J. R., & Ortiz, D. (2005). Process improvements at Falconbridge Dominicana. In J. Donald & R. Schonewille (Eds.), Nickel and Cobalt 2005, Challenges in Extraction and Production (pp. 427–439). Canada, Montreal: CIM. Nakai, O., Kawata, M., Kyoda, Y., & Tsuchida, N. (2006). Commissioning of Coral Bay nickel project. In ALTA 2006 Nickel/Cobalt Conference Proceedings. A. Taylor (Ed.) Melbourne, Australia: ALTA Metallurgical Services. Tuffrey, N. E., Chalkley, M. E., Collins, M. J., & Iglesias, C. (2009). The effect of magnesium on HPAL – comparison of Sherritt laboratory studies and Moa plant operating data. In J. J. Budac, R. Fraser & I. Mihaylov (Eds.), Hydrometallurgy of Nickel and Cobalt 2009 (pp. 421–432). Canada, Montreal: The Metallurgical Society of CIM.
SUGGESTED READING Adams, M., van der Meulen, D., Czerny, C., et al. (2004). Piloting of the beneficiation and EPAL circuits for Ravensthorpe nickel operations. In W. P. Imrie, D. M. Lane & S. C. C Barnett, et al. (Eds.), International Laterite Nickel Symposium 2004, Process Development for Prospective Projects (pp. 193–202). Warrendale, Pa: TMS.
