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An improved process for heap leaching of nickeliferous oxidic ores

A technology for ore and heap leaching, applied in the field of hydrometallurgy, which can solve the problems of high capital and maintenance costs of leaching equipment, increased acid consumption, and low nickel recovery.

Inactive Publication Date: 2008-05-07
BHP BILLITON SSM TECH PTY LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0011] Two plants in Australia have used hypersaline water in high pressure acid leaching, but due to the complex metallurgy required to withstand the high chloride solution conditions, the negative consequences are lower nickel recovery, increased acid usage , and higher capital and maintenance costs for extraction equipment

Method used

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  • An improved process for heap leaching of nickeliferous oxidic ores
  • An improved process for heap leaching of nickeliferous oxidic ores

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

Embodiment 2

[0056] Australian laterite ore samples from arid regions were crushed and screened such that all ore samples were smaller than 25mm. The analysis of the ore is shown in Table 2.

[0057] Table 2.

[0058] ％Al

[0059] Eight columns (100 mm diameter x 1.86 m high) containing about 10 kg of agglomerated ore were set up to simulate heap leaching and test the leaching kinetics of hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid systems. Some of the columns had fluorspar added during the aggregation process.

[0060] To compensate for the leachate, a synthetic hypersaline solution was prepared to simulate the subsurface brine in the orebody region. The hypersaline solution strength was 140,000 ppm total dissolved solids, including 129 gpl sodium chloride. Table 3 summarizes the conditions for each column.

[0061] Table 3. Test column conditions

[0062]

[0063] The test results are shown in Table 4.

[0064] Table 4. Extracted data

[0065] Column test numb...

Embodiment 3

[0068] A pilot plant heap run was established based on the test BLS2 (pioneer column) in Example 2. The pilot plant consisted of a 762kg loaded heap leaching column (diameter 0.93m x height 2.48m) and an ISEP pilot ion exchange unit filled with 30 liters of Dow 4195 ion exchange resin for nickel and cobalt recovery. The aggregation conditions are summarized in Table 5. Permeate flow rate is 5 liters / m 2 / hr, corresponding to a flow rate of 80 liters per day.

[0069] Table 5: Large-scale heap accumulation conditions

[0070] Dry ore mass (kg)

Ore moisture (%)

kg H 2 SO 4 / T ore

Salt water (liter / T)

762

27

54.4

106.5

[0071] 62% nickel extraction, 30% cobalt extraction and 366kg / t ore acid consumption over 74 days for 100mm pioneer column. For the 762kg test heap, nickel extraction was 29.6% cobalt extraction was 17.0% and acid consumption was 181.8kg / t ore over a period of 53 days. Figure 2 shows that the two columns hav...

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Abstract

A process for the recovery of nickel and cobalt from a nickeliferous oxidic ore by heap leaching, the process including the steps of: a) forming the nickeliferous oxidic ore into one or more heaps; b) leaching the ore heap with a leach solution in a leach step wherein the leach solution includes an acid supplemented hypersaline water as the lixiviant, the hypersaline water having a total dissolved solids concentration greater than 30 g / l; and c) recovering the nickel and cobalt from the resultant heap leachate.

Description

field of invention [0001] The present invention relates generally to a novel hydrometallurgical process for the leaching of nickel-containing oxidic ores to recover valuable nickel and cobalt. In particular, the present invention provides a process for the extraction of nickel and cobalt from laterite ores containing nickel and cobalt by heap leaching the ore with a leach solution prepared from brine or hypersaline water. The method is particularly applicable to nickel-bearing oxide deposits in arid regions where subsurface brines are the only economic water source, or in island or coastal laterite deposits where only seawater is available. Background of the invention [0002] Nickel-bearing oxide deposits containing nickel and cobalt, typically lateritic ores, often contain the oxide-type ore limonite and the silicate-type ore saprolite in the same sediment. Commercial processing of higher nickel content saprolite tends to be done through pyrometallurgical processes, which...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(China)
IPC IPC(8): C22B3/06C22B23/00
CPCC22B23/043C22B23/0423C22B23/005C22B1/243C22B3/04C22B23/00
Inventor 刘后元
Owner BHP BILLITON SSM TECH PTY LTD
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