Challenges in processing nickel laterite ores by flotation

Saeed Farrokhpay, Lev Filippov

PII: S0301-7516(16)30071-0
DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.minpro.2016.04.007
Reference: MINPRO 2889

To appear in: International Journal of Mineral Processing

Received date: 18 January 2016

Revised date: 19 April 2016
Accepted date: 21 April 2016

Please cite this article as: Farrokhpay, Saeed, Filippov, Lev, Challenges in processing
nickel laterite ores by flotation, International Journal of Mineral Processing (2016), doi:
10.1016/j.minpro.2016.04.007

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Challenges in processing nickel laterite ores by flotation

Saeed Farrokhpay* & Lev Filippov

Université de Lorraine, GeoRessources Laboratory, UMR 7359 CNRS, 2 rue du Doyen Marcel

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Roubault, TSA 70605, 54518 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France.

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Corresponding author: saeed.farrokhpay@univ-lorraine.fr

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ABSTRACT

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The challenges in processing nickel laterite ores using flotation process were comprehensively
reviewed. Literature shows that flotation has not been successful to recover nickel from
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laterite ores. Nickel in laterite ores is often finely disseminated in various minerals in very
fine size. Therefore fine grinding can be useful to liberate nickel containing particles.
However, particles resulted from fine grinding are often very fine, and recovery of such
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particles is low in the conventional flotation cells. It has been suggested that using reactor-
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separator cells with more probability of particle-bubble attachment can be useful to recover
fine particles. Therefore these types of cells (or similar) should be tested in processing laterite
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ores. In addition, increasing particle size often results in enhancing the particle-bubble
interaction in flotation. Selective flocculation of fine particles could be therefore the key
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parameter to improve the flotation performance of laterite ores. Flocculation of these type of
ores needs to be thoroughly investigated.
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Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2
Mineralogy of nickel laterite ores ........................................................................................................... 3
Liberation of nickel containing particles ................................................................................................. 6
Separation by flotation ............................................................................................................................ 7
Selective aggregation of fine particles .................................................................................................... 8
Interactions between fine particles in flotation .................................................................................... 10
Conclusions............................................................................................................................................ 11
References ............................................................................................................................................. 12

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Introduction

Nickel is an important metal with the total global consumption of about 2 million tons per

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year which has grown rapidly since the 1940s (Figure 1) (Mackey, 2011). Nickel is sourced

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from two different types of ores, sulphide and laterite. The majority of the world’s nickel
resources occur as laterite ores which are complex, low grade and expensive to treat using

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conventional smelting and high temperature and/or high pressure autoclave methods (Xu et

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al., 2013). While about 70% of the nickel resources are contained in laterites, only 40% of the
world’s nickel production comes from these ores. The main areas with the large nickel laterite

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resources in the world are New Caledonia, Australia, Indonesia, South America (Colombia
and Brazil), The Philippines, India, and Russia (Einhorn, 2015). It should be noted that these
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days nickel laterites are more attractive for production of nickel as the amount of high grade
nickel sulphide ores has been diminished (Janwong, 2012). Therefore more economic
processes to recover nickel from these resources should be developed.
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Researchers have tried to improve nickel laterite flotation recovery by using a number of feed
preparation techniques. A summary of the nickel grade upgrade using flotation reported in the
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literature is presented in Table 1. It can be seen that only minor nickel upgrades has been
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reported. Thus the challenge of processing nickel laterite ores still exists. In fact, no physical
separation technique (including flotation) has been able to dramatically upgrade nickel in
laterite ores (Quast et al., 2015a). The only isolated case with an acceptable nickel upgrading
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is the result by Denysschen and Wagner (2009). They used dense medium separation ahead of
flotation of a low grade nickel ore at Tati Nickel Mine in Botswana. However, this work is not
included in Table 1 as the ore they used was indeed a nickel sulphide, but the authors had
classified it as lateritic probably because of its low grade.

It should be added that segregation of laterite ores prior the flotation process has shown some
improvement in upgrading nickel. The segregation process relies on the addition of calcium
chloride or sodium chloride and carbon allowing the formation of nickel and iron chlorides at
temperatures between 900-1150 °C. Iwasaki et al. (1961) and Nagano et al. (1970) have
reported nickel concentrate with 22-37% and 5-7% nickel using saprolitic and goethite ores,
respectively. Harris et al. (2013) has also applied segregation to nickel lateritic ores before
flotation and obtained an average nickel grade of 4-5% (Table 1).

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Reverse flotation has been also used for an Indonesian iron-rich laterite ore to float siliceous
minerals. Calcine laterite product was obtained from reduction at 900 °C by transforming
limonite-goethite to magnetite. The reverse flotations was used to separate iron from nickel
mineral using amine thioacetate, as collector ( Purwanto, et al., 2011). One stage rougher

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reverse flotation resulted in 0.5% nickel grades (at 33% recovery) which is not commercially

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acceptable.

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Quast et al. (2015a) have reviewed the application of various techniques of pre-concentration

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of nickel laterite ores prior to hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical process. They
concluded that the complex mineralogy of nickel laterite ores makes it difficult to achieve any
significant nickel upgrading by physical techniques (including flotation). They have also

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stated that since nickel bearing minerals are often finely disseminated through the laterite
ores, liberation of such minerals may not be easily achievable. The have also published their
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flotation experimental results in a different paper (Quast et al., 2015c). The flotation of even a
selected size fraction (38–75 μm) resulted in only a minor increase in the nickel content (from
1.0% to 1.4% at a Ni recovery of 43%). Therefore, further investigations in flotation of
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laterite ores are undoubtedly warranted. In particular, a more comprehensive review on topics
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influencing nickel laterite flotation needs to be conducted. The new review should cover both
old and most recent publication in fine grinding, flotation of fine particle, aggregation of such
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particles, and the interactions between such fine particles in the flotation process. This will be
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heart of the current review. This paper aims to comprehensively review previously published
work on processing nickel laterite ores. In particular, it focuses on the mineralogy of laterite
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ores, liberation of nickel bearing particles, and challenges in separation of these particles by
flotation. Other factors which influence the flotation process including selective aggregation
of fine particles, and particle-particle interactions are also discussed.

Mineralogy of nickel laterite ores

The main nickel bearing minerals are Mn and Fe oxides, serpentine, garnierite, and chlorite.
Table 2 shows an example of Ni bearing minerals reported in literature (Massoura et al.,
2006). Table 3 also shows some important minerals which are often present in nickel laterites
(Rao, 2000).

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In general, nickel laterite deposits are usually divided into 3 different zones of limonite
(oxide), nontronite (clay) and saprolite (silicate) zones (Janwong, 2012). Saprolite is the
lowest layer reflects early stages of weathering and may contain 1.5-3% nickel. The
nontronite zone contains clays and quartz. In an orebody, acidic ground water dissolves many

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of soluble minerals resulting in a solution containing nickel, iron, magnesium, silica and other

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elements such as chromium. As the groundwater travels deeper within the host rock, changes
in pH and contact with the unaltered host rock results in preferential precipitation of iron and

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nickel minerals. Nickel and iron enrichment also occur through an ion exchange process

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where, nickel and iron in solution will exchange with magnesium within the host rock.
Minerals near the surface are enriched in iron and eventually form hydrated iron oxides such

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as goethite. This portion of the ore is generally referred to as limonite. The limonite zone
contains mostly goethite and amorphous ferric hydroxide and is a result of further weathering.
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Brand et al. (1998) have also classified nickel laterite deposits into three categories of silicate
deposits dominated by hydrated Mg-Ni silicates (e.g. garnierite), silicate nickel deposits
dominated by smectite clays (e.g. nontronite) and oxide deposits dominated by iron oxy-
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hydroxides (e.g. goethite).

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In drier locations, there is often an intermediate region containing smectite clays and quartz
which separate limonitic zone from the saprolitic zone (Golightly, 1979). Therefore, some
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authors have divided laterite deposits to four zones of saprolite, transition zone, limonite, and
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ferricrete (Kyle, 2010). The transition zone is above the saprolite, in poorly drained areas, and
it contains significant saprolite-garnierite as well as some clays or nontronite. The bulk of the
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nickel is often associated with clay and nontronite minerals. Ferricrete is a hard ferruginous
crust and can form at the top of the sequence. It has generally been considered as an
overburden layer, with nickel and cobalt grades well below the commercial levels. It should
be noted that in real orebodies, the situation can be more complex. The various zones may be
absent or mixed, and they may contain significant amounts of moisture and clay minerals as
well as minor amounts of copper or zinc. This enrichment may be due to either precipitation
of nickel rich minerals such as garnierite within veins of the host rock, or due to direct
substitution of nickel for magnesium within the serpentine. For example, in New Caledonia,
nickel is concentrated either in fine-grained laterite where goethite is the main nickel bearer
(lateritic ore) or below the laterites as mixtures of hydrous Mg-Ni silicate and goethite
(saprolite ores) (Dublet et al., 2012).

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The CSIRO researchers (Elliot et al., 2009; Watling et al., 2011) have examined the
composition of 50 nickel laterite ore samples and noted an extreme variability with in both
their elemental and mineralogical characteristics. Because of the low nickel concentration and
variable distribution in these phases, effective upgrading by physical separation processes

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would be challenging. In another study a laterite ore has been characterised to consist 80%

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goethite with porous and soft structure, 15% silicate minerals and other minor phases,
including chromite, maghemite, hematite and quartz, with no independent nickel minerals

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(Zhu et al., 2012).

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Samples from the saprolite and smectite zone of the Murrin Murrin lateritic nickel deposit (in
Western Australia) have been also investigated using optical microscopy, XRD, SEM and

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TEM-EDX (Gaudini et al., 2005). It has been revealed that in the saprolite zone, mineralogy
is dominated by serpentine, smectite and maghemite. However, in the smectite zone,
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serpentine and scapolite completely disappear. Smectite and maghemite are the dominant
minerals and goethite appears at the top of this zone. Swierczek et al. (2011; 2012) have
characterised nickel laterite ores using both QEMSCAN and Quantitative X-Ray Diffraction
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(QXRD). They have observed an acceptable correlation between chemical and mineralogical
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analyses for most of the dominant gangue elements. However, they have reported large errors
in predicting the nickel distribution among the major mineral phases. They attributed this to
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the low concentration of nickel in the ores, and its wide dispersion among the major host
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minerals. Therefore, although automatic mineralogy techniques are suitable to investigate

most mineral systems, they may suffer from poor resolution and detection of very finely
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dispersed minerals such as nickel phases. Thus, other techniques may need to be sought in
such cases to understand the mineralogy of these complex ores. An example of complexity of
nickel laterite ores as shown by a QEMSCAN image is given in Figure 2 (Quast et al.,
2015b). Researchers at Eramet Group (Blancher et al., 2015) have also used QEMSCAN,
XRD and microprobe to characterise nickel laterite ores. They revealed that to improve nickel
recovery in laterite ores in addition to characterise the total amount of nickel bearing phases,
one should identify the different species of each phases, as they may contain different mineral
specific nickel contents.

Nickel laterite ores often contain phyllosilicate minerals such as talc, serpentine and smectite.
For example, Figure 3 shows a QEMSCAN image of a laterite ore from Indonesia (Blancher
et al.). Therefore a good knowledge of clay minerals is helpful to understand the mineralogy
of such laterite ores. Recent papers on classification of phyllosilicate minerals and their effect

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in mineral processing is available (Ndlovu et al., 2013; Ndlovu et al., 2014). Nickel
availability has been also shown to be higher when nickel is associated with phyllosilicate
minerals than with well-crystallized iron oxides (Massoura et al., 2006).

In summary, nickel laterite mineralogy is complex and nickel often present as ultrafine

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inclusions in a number of mineral phases. Grinding to such a fine size is difficult using the

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traditional grinding tools. Therefore, methods such as fine grinding using stirred milling may

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be useful to liberate the nickel containing particles which is discussed in the next section.

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Liberation of nickel containing particles

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It is know that selective grinding using stirred milling technology can preferentially liberate
valuable minerals contained in soft minerals (Yue and Klein, 2004). It has been reported that
stirred milling can selectively improve the degree of liberation compared to the traditional ball
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milling (Xiao et al., 2012). This may even increase the performance of mineral separation
methods ((Sen et al., 1987). Although, on the other hand, fine grinding may cause the pulp
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viscosity to be increased. The amount of gangue slime particles on the surface of minerals
created during the fine grinding may reduce the particle breakage rate (Yue and Klein, 2004)
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and selective collector adsorption in flotation (Bremmell and Addai-Mensah, 2005). For
example, selective grinding followed by size classification may produce a -38 μm fraction
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richer in valuable elements and a coarser low grade +38 μm fraction which could be rejected.
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Previous grinding results for laterite ores has suggested a non-first order grinding behaviour
attributed to the fast breakage rate of the soft minerals in the feed (Tong et al., 2013).
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In fine grinding, the specific surface of particles becomes generally larger and the mass of the
particle becomes smaller. Figure 4 illustrates the relationship between the physical and
chemical properties of fine particles and their behaviour in flotation. Because of the small
mass and momentum of fine particles, they may be carried into the froth either entrained in
the liquid or mechanically entrapped with particles being floated. Pease et al. (2004) have
shown that fine particles which are carried into the froth in layers of water are attached to air
bubbles. It should be noted that when such particles are gangue minerals the final effect
would be a reduction in the grade of flotation products. The large specific surface of fine
particles also increases the adsorption capacity of reagents when considered on a mass basis.

David (2008) has highlighted that the lack of success in upgrading nickel in laterite via
flotation is due to the absence of a specific nickel rich phase in laterite ores. In fact, nickel is

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present in a number of soft minerals which can easily report to the slimes during milling.
Since flotation relies on selective adsorption of collectors on the surfaces of specific minerals,
the lack of concentrated nickel at the mineral surface, or the concentration of nickel in only
one phase and the presence of phases barren in nickel, can compromise the recovery of a high

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grade concentrate.

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Separation by flotation

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It is well known that the recovery of fine particles (e.g. those produced by stirred media

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milling) is generally low in conventional flotation cells. An example of flotation recovery
curve of different size fractions of chalcopyrite is presented in Figure 5. While the low

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recovery of coarse particles may be due to the presence of complex particles or sedimentation
of heavy coarse particles, the low recovery of fine particles is often attributed to the low
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particle-bubble collision (Dai et al., 2000; Gontijo et al., 2007). The overall flotation
probability depends on the probability of bubble-particle collision, attachment and
detachment. It is known that fine particles exhibit different behavior than large particles in
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flotation. Thus, the low collision probability between particles and bubbles decrease fine
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particle flotation performance (Dai et al., 2000). Therefore, while one can increase the
recovery of coarse particles by enhancing the liberation or preventing the sedimentation, for
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example by adjusting the viscosity of flotation media (Farrokhpay et al., 2011), the
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probability of particle-bubble attachment needs to be increased to improve the fine particle

flotation. Recently, efforts have been made to increase bubble-particle collision efficiency
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either by decreasing the bubble size or by increasing particle size (Miettinen et al., 2010).
Nano bubbles have been also used to enhance the recovery of fine particles. Nano bubbles
have improved the flotation kinetics in both mechanical cells and flotation column (Fan et al.,
2013).

There has been a lot of work to overcome the inefficient collision of small particles with
rising air bubbles. These include influence of bubble size, particle aggregation, different flow
conditions and particle induction time (Miettinen et al., 2010). New flotation methods are
being sought for fine particle flotation. For example, reactor-separators (Harbort et al., 2003b,
Samygin et al., 2010; Filippov et al., 2014) have been designed so that particles are mixed
with gas bubbles in a reactor before they are introduced in the flotation cell. This results in
increased particle-bubble collision and attachment efficiencies and therefore enhancing the
flotation of fine particles. Jameson model reactor-separators were developed initially in

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Australia for this purpose (Harbort et al., 2003a; Harbort et al., 2003b). This production was
later developed by Exportburo Haudan GmbH (Imhoflot®). Pneumatic flotation differs from
conventional flotation as the bubble particle contact takes place outside of the cell. The
associated pulp then enters the cell while the bubbles have been already mineralised in the

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aerator. Therefore, two important aspects of flotation, bubble-particle attachment and mineral

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collection can be individually optimised. It has been reported that up to 30% of fine particles
from an existing plant tailings has been recovered using this type of flotation cells (Battersby

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et al., 2011).

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There is a great potential to recover of fine particles using column flotation or air sparged
hydrocyclone (Abd El‐Rahiem, 2014). Column flotation is a process designed with the

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intention to increase the collision probability, and decrease the entrainment by allowing
bubbles to pass through a pulp of high solid content. The froth phase containing particles is
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usually washed by water spray to separate entrained particles. After analysing various ways to
improve fine particle flotation, Somasundaran (1975) has concluded that only column
flotation combined with some form of refluxing and froth washing can reduce entrainment
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and consequently, improve fine particle recovery. Carrier flotation (Miller et al., 2007;
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Subrahmanyam and Forssberg, 1990; Fuerstenau et al., 1988) has also potential for fine
particle flotation. This method has the advantage of reducing the long conditioning time in the
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conventional technique. But the main disadvantage of carrier flotation is high reagent
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consumption and the necessity for subsequent separations of valuables from the carrier
particles when the valuable minerals are being recovered.
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Selective aggregation of fine particles

It is evident that the flotation rate of fine particles can increase with increasing the particle
size (Miettinen et al., 2010). In principle, flocculation or dispersion of all minerals should be
possible by controlling the pulp ionic composition, or by using proper polymers or dispersants
(Somasundaran, 1980). In general, dispersion or aggregation of mineral particles can be
obtained via two basic mechanisms, charge or electrostatic, and steric interactions
(Farrokhpay, 2011). Several studies have shown that flotation of fine particles can be
improved by selective flocculation (Somasundaran, 1978, Song et al., 2001). The aggregation
of fine particles followed by flotation is often called "floc flotation" (Trahar and Warren,
1976). Zhong et al. (1988) used polyacrylamides and several collector surfactants to
flocculate hematite, cassiterite, calcite, quartz, ilmenite and feldspar. Floc flotation has been

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also successfully used to recover copper from low grade or finely disseminated ores (Aruna
and Shende, 2006). While basic mechanisms governing such aggregation or dispersion in
simple mineral systems are well understood, very little is known about the behaviour of
complex ores such as nickel laterite. It should be noted that the characterisation of aggregates

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(i.e. identifying the structure of aggregates and their stability) is very important when

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designing any dispersion and/or aggregation system. Filippov et al. (2003) has used fractal
dimension analysis for this purpose.

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Selective aggregation of fine particles can be also achieved by controlling the surface charge
and/or zeta potential of the individual components. Aggregation occurs when repulsive force
between the particles are reduced, either by charge neutralisation or reduction of the electrical

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double layer (Mirnezami et al., 2004). Vergouw et al. (1998b; 1998a) observed that the
maximum aggregation of particles of pyrite and galena occurred at a zeta potential close to
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zero (iso-electric point, i.e.p.). Similar results have been reported for aggregating mineral
oxides at the iso electric point (Farrokhpay, 2012a). Although it should be noted that when
particles are more strongly hydrophobic, aggregation may be possible at high zeta potentials
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(Lu and Dai, 1988; Fuerstenau et al., 1988; Akdemir, 1997; Song et al., 2001).
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One possibility of obtaining effective aggregation is through the interaction of classical ionic
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collectors pre-adsorbed on the fine particles with oppositely charged polymers (flocculants).
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Such interaction may lead to an aggregation via combining electrostatic and hydrophobic
interactions. Hydrophobic flocculation arises as a result of hydrophobic interaction between
hydrophobic particles and an oppositely charged or nonionic flocculant. A strong flocculation
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for oxide suspensions has been reported when anionic surfactants and a cationic flocculant
were adsorbed onto the ZnO surface. In the case of MgO, the same effect has been observed
when a nonionic flocculant was used (Sadowski and Polowczyk, 2008).

Selective flocculation process has been commercialised for iron ore to process finely
disseminated large deposits of oxidized taconites containing predominantly hematite and
goethite (Colombo, 1986). The process involves dispersion of mineral particles with sodium
hydroxide and sodium silicate-lignosulfonates-hexametaphosphate or tripolyphosphates
followed by selective flocculation of iron minerals using starch. Pradip et al. (1993) have
found that polyvinylpyrrolidone is a good selective dispersant in separation of hematite from
kaolinite when polyacrylic acid is used as flocculent. Polyvinylpyrrolidone dispersant along
with starch as flocculent has be also used for selective flocculation of iron ore slimes

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(Tammishetti et al., 2012). It should be noted that, goethite for example, has iron oxy-
hydroxyl groups in aqueous suspensions which are ready to react with the active COOH
groups (for example, in polyacrylic acid). It is clear that a good understanding of the mineral
present in a laterite ore through mineralogy is essential to design a proper dispersant-

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flocculation system.

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Interactions between fine particles in flotation

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Interaction between fine particles can increase the pulp viscosity as well as the amount of

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gangue slime particles on the surface of minerals. This may reduce particle breakage rate
during the grinding process (Klein and Hallbom, 2002; Yue and Klein, 2004) and also
selective collector adsorption in flotation (Bremmell and Addai-Mensah, 2005). To probe
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these particle interactions, the surface potential and rheological properties of the ore
suspension needs to be determined at different conditions such as pH, ionic strength, solid
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density and reagent concentration.

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Rheological investigations can be used to understand the interactions occurring between

particles in flotation process (Genc et al., 2010; Sweet et al., 2012; Farrokhpay, 2012b). It has
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been demonstrated that effective fine particle flotation requires a substantial dispersion state
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characterised by low viscosity. Therefore, understanding the rheology data may be useful to
find ways to improve the fine particle flotation (Bakker et al., 2009; Gomez et al., 2010).
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Previous study on the rheology of laterite ore suspensions from India has shown Bingham
plastic behaviour at 20% and beyond (Bhattacharya et al., 1998). It is known that the
rheological properties of mineral slurries are affected by pH, temperature, solid concentration
and particle size. The variation in the rheology of nickel laterite smectite suspensions has been
attributed to the differences in their mineralogy and particle size distribution (Das et al.,
2011).

Another study on an ore sample from Ramu deposit (Papua New Guinea) has shown that the
rheology of the nickel laterite suspension is mainly affected by the surface properties of
goethite (Klein and Hallbom, 2002). The zeta potential values for this ore at different pH’s
also agree with that of goethite mineral with an iso electric point at about pH 7.5 (Figure 6).
An iso electric point at pH 5 has been also reported for laterite ores containing goethite

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(Figure 6) which is different from goethite single mineral (Sen et al., 1987). Therefore, one
should consider the zeta potential data for mixed minerals with caution as it depends on
several factors such as measurement method, particle size and mineral liberation. It should be
noted that even the zeta potential for goethite has been reported differently by different

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researchers (Figure 7) which may be the result using different measurement method or sample

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preparation. Quast et al. (2015d) have also reported similar results for zeta potential of
goethite (11-13% pulp density) as previously shown by Yenial et al. (2014).

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It should be reminded that some particle-particle interaction data reported for flotation can be
misleading if they are related to dilute suspension as they are not simulate particle behaviours
in industrial plant processes. A recent review of the previously published data on the

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dispersion of fine particles and characterisation of their interactions in concentrated
suspensions is available (Otsuki and Bryant, 2015). It has been revealed that a combining
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different methods is needed to develop a full picture of particle-particle interactions in
concentrated suspensions.
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Conclusions
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Until now flotation process has not been successful to recover nickel from laterite ores. This
has been associated with the complex mineralogy of the laterites. Therefore, the mineralogical
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analysis is essential to identify the type and amount of nickel bearing minerals, as well as the
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degree of their liberation. Nickel in laterite ores is often finely disseminated in various
minerals in very fine size. Grinding to such a fine size is difficult using the traditional
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grinding tools. Therefore, fine grinding should be used to liberate nickel containing particles.
Particles resulted from such fine grinding are often in order of less than 38 µm and recovery
of these particles is generally low in conventional flotation cells. One option to overcome this
problem is using new flotation cells such as reactor-separator which has more probability of
particle-bubble attachment. Other option for enhancing the particle-bubble attachment is
increasing the particle size and forming flocs. Selective flocculation can be therefore the key
to enhance the flotation performance of laterite ores.

Acknowledgment

The financial supports from Labex “Ressources 21” (Strategic Metals in the 21st Century) is
gratefully acknowledged (Investissements d’Avenir-grant agreement no. ANR–11–LABX–
0030).

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Table 1: A summary of the reported data on upgrade nickel in laterite flotation (partly adapted from
Quast et al., 2015c).
Ore source Conditions Head Ni grade @ Ref.
grade recovery
Brazil Synthesized 2,3 octanedione 1.2% 1.4% at 63% Teoh et al.,
dioxim as collector 1982

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New Micro-flotation of 53-74 µm No or minor Onodera et al.,

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Caledonia fraction using a variety of upgrading 1987
reagents. Best selectivity by using
cetyl trimethyl ammonium

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bromide (CTAB) or sodium oleate

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India Anionic collectors plus sodium 0.6% 1.6% at 60% Rao and
silicate Charan, 1989
India Cationic collectors and starch to 0.8% 1.3% at 86% Rao and
recover Ni from a cyclone Charan, 1990

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overflow of 20 µm
India Pre-concentration by rejection of 0.5% 1% at 82% Rao et al.,
coarse fraction with low Ni 1995
amount, followed by
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hydrocyclone and attrition
scrubbing. Flotation of the
cyclone underflow using
petroleum sulphonate, sodium
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silicate and pine oil

India Sodium lauryl methylamino acetic 0.5% 1% at 70-80% Rao and
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acid and sodium salt of modified Sastri, 1996

carboxylic acid
India Various reagents including 0.5% Slightly upgrade Mohanty et
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hydroxy quinoline, dimethyl at 40-60% al., 2000

glyoxime, nitroso pyrazolone, 2,2 recovery
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bipyridal, triethonolamine and

sodium oleate
Ivory Coast Segregation of nickel laterite ores 1.2% 6-8 % at 35-45 % Harris et al.,
followed by flotation using 2013
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sodium silicate as dispersant

Australia A number of feed preparation 1% 1.4% at 43% Quast et al.,
techniques before flotation 2015c

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Table 2: An example of Ni bearing minerals reported in literature (adapted from Massoura et

al., 2006).

Phyllosilicates Oxides

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Chrysotile: Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4 Fe oxide [e.g. goethite: FeO(OH)]
Talc: Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 Mn oxide

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Serpentine: (Mg,Fe)3Si2O5(OH)4

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Smectite group, e.g. montmorillonite
Illite: (K,H3O)(Al,Mg,Fe)2(Si,Al)4O10[(OH)2,(H2O)]
Chlorite: (Mg,Fe2+)5Al(Si3Al)O10(OH)8

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Pyroxene: (NaCa)(Mg,Fe,Al)(Al,Si)2O6
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Table 3: Significant minerals in nickel laterites (Rao, 2000).

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Minerals Formula % Ni
Periditite rock
Olivine Mg,Fe,Ni)2SiO4 0.25
Orthopyroxene (Mg,Fe)SiO3 0.05
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Serpentine Mg3Si2O5(OH)4 0.25

Saprolite zone
Nickeliferous serpentine (Mg,Fe,Ni)3Si2O5(OH)4 1-10
Garnierite (Ni,Mg)3Si4O10(OH)2 10-24

Intermediate zone
Nontronite (Ca,Na,K)0.5 Fe3+,Ni,Mg,Al)4 (Si,Al)8O20(OH)4 0-5

Quartz SiO2 0

Limonite zone
Goethite (Fe,Al,Ni)OOH 0-1.5
Asbolite Mn,Fe,Co,Ni oxide 1-10

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Figure 1: World nickel consumption (Mackey, 2011).

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Figure 2: A QEMSCAN image as an example of the complexity of nickel laterite ores; image
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refers to a high Ni-bearing goethite particle at -600+300 µm size (After Quast et al. (2015b).
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Figure 3: QEMSCAN images of laterite ore from Indonesia (After Blancher et al., 2015).
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Figure 4: Schematic diagram showing the relation between the physical and chemical
properties of fine particles and their behaviour in flotation (adapted from Chander, 1978).

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Figure 5: Typical flotation recovery curve of different size fractions: left (Xian-ping et al., 2011) and

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right (Bulatovic, 2007). MA

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Zeta Potential (mV)

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0
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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-10

-20

-30
pH

Figure 6: Zeta potential curve for two different laterite ores. Replotted from (Sen et al., 1987
(dot line) and Klein and Hallbom, 2002 (solid line).

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Figure 7: Zeta potential curve for goethite as reported by different researchers: left (Yenial et
al., 2014) and right (Garman et al., 2004).

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Highlights

Until now flotation has not been successful to recover nickel from laterite ores

Fine grinding should be used to liberate nickel containing particles in laterite ores

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Selective flocculation can help to enhance flotation performance of laterite ore

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