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STUDY ON SELECTIVE REDUCTION AND MAGNETIC

SEPARATION OF LOW-GRADE NICKEL LATERITE ORE
TO PRODUCE HIGH NICKEL CONCENTRATE
Q Li1, Y Cui2, D Zhu3, J Zhu4, J Pan5, H Zhang6 and G Zheng6

ABSTRACT
There is a strong demand for nickel metal due to quick development of stainless steel and new
electrical materials industries, most of which are extracted from sulfide ores, resulting in a serious
depletion of sulfide resources. Therefore, more attentions have been paying to extracting nickel from
nickel laterite ores these years, accounting for some 60 per cent of total nickel metal production. An
effective process of selective reduction roasting-wet magnetic separation was studied to manufacture
high nickel concentrate from tropical low grade nickel laterite ore obtained from Indonesia in this
paper. Research of the effect of process parameters on reduction was carried out of low-grade nickel
laterite ore (lower than one per cent Ni) at 1250°C by using coal as the reductant. The reduced ore was
then upgraded by magnetic separation, 75 per cent of the total mass being rejected as tailings, and a
high grade nickel concentrate, assaying 5.1 per cent Ni and 82.66 per cent Fetotal, was produced at a
nickel recovery of 98.79 per cent. This concentrate is a good quality burden for EAF. There are great
difficulties in the enrichment of nickel from low grade laterite ore by pyrometallurgical processes
due to the similar reducibility of the nickel and iron oxides in the ores. Therefore, some additives
were developed to suppress the reduction of iron minerals and improve the reduction of nickel and
the growth of newly formed element nickel, upgrading of nickel by wet magnetic separation being
achieved for manufacturing high nickel grade concentrate.
Keywords: nickel laterite ore, selective reduction roasting, magnetic separation

INTRODUCTION
As an important metal, nickel is widely utilised in stainless steel and new material industries, such
as high temperature alloy, catalysers, secondary battery, fuel battery and so on. With the quick
development of these industries, especially stainless steel, the demand for nickel metal has been
elevated dramatically these years (Moskalyk and Alfantazi, 2002). In the land nickel reserve, 30 per
cent of which existed as sulfide ores and other as oxide ores, the latter is also named nickel laterite
ore (Agatzini-Leonardou, Tsakiridis, Oustadakis et al, 2009). In the traditional nickel industries
some 60 per cent of the metal nickel was produced from sulfide ores about ten years ago (Pickles,
2003; Blakey and James, 2003). However, more difficulties in mining nickel sulfide ores have
been confronted due to drilling depth, higher production cost and less reserves. Therefore, more
attentions have been paying to mining nickel laterite ore, leading to some 50 per cent metal nickel
being produced from laterite currently (McDonald, Whittington, 2008; Pickles, 2004). China will
become one of the largest nickel consumers in the world due to a soaring of stainless steel. Especially,
more nickel laterite ores will be imported due to the depletion of nickel sulfide resources in China. It
is of great importance to effectively utilise low grade nickel laterite ore.
There are some developed processes on utilisation of nickel laterite ore which can be classified
into three categories including pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and complex processes. Also

1. Associate Professor, Department of Metallurgical Science and Engineering, Central South University, Metallurgical Building, Changsha, Hunan 410 083, China.
Email: qihouli@mail.csu.edu.cn
2. PhD Student, Central South University, HePing Building, Changsha, Hunan 410 083, China. Email: cuiyu19820809@163.com and Visiting Student, Iron Ore Group, CSIRO, Brisbane,
Australia. Email: yu.cui@csiro.au
3. Professor, Central South University, HePing Building, Changsha, Hunan 410 083, China. Email: dqzhu@mail.csu.edu.cn
4. Senior Engineer, China Nonferrous Metals Mining (Group) Co Ltd, Beijing, China. Email: cnmc@cnmc.com.cn
5. Associate Professor, Central South University, HePing Building, Changsha, Hunan 410 083, China. Email: panjian@mail.csu.edu.cn
6. Postgraduate, Central South University, HePing Building, Changsha, Hunan 410 083, China.

XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1549
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hydrometallurgical processes can be classified into many subprocesses, such as high pressure acid
leaching mainly in Australia (Donegan, 2006; Mackenzie, Virnig and Feather, 2006); chloride
medium leaching, this process was presented by SLN’s Sandouville Nickel Refinery at Le Havre
(Moskalyk and Alfantazi, 2002). For pyrometallurgical process, nickel laterite ore is directly smelted
in electric furnace or blast furnace to produce ferronickel (Koté, 2002). Combination of pyro- and
hydro-metallurgical process, such as reduction roast and ammonia leaching, also called Caron
process, was mainly applied in Cuba (Valix and Cheung, 2002). The hydrometallurgical processes
have higher metal recovery and can recover cobalt as by-product, but there are many environmental
problems and need higher cost on equipment. Pyrometallurgical processes have higher efficiency
but also require higher production cost when to extract nickel from low grade ores. The present
technologies are not effective for upgrading low grade laterite ore economically.
A combination of pyrometallurgical technique and beneficiation process which named coal based
selective reduction-wet magnetic separation was studied in this paper to manufacture high nickel
grade concentrate from low grade laterite ore which is a refractory nickel resources and hard to
beneficiate by traditional processes. During the roasting the reduction of iron minerals was depressed
whereas the nickel mineral reduction was strengthened. Non-coking coal is used as reductant instead
of coke, leading to much less environmental problems. Nickel was upgraded while more gangue is
rejected as tailings, resulting in higher output and less energy consumption for downstream reducing
smelting process due to less burden feed for smelter. The concentrate produced by this process will
save much energy and make the ferronickel production friendlier to environment.

EXPERIMENTAL
Raw materials
The tested ore in this study was of limonitic nickel laterite type which contains low nickel and high
iron as shown in Table 1. This laterite is characterised by lower nickel grade of 0.97 per cent, higher
Fetotal of 40.09 per cent, lower MgO of 4.65 per cent and higher LOI of 13.23 per cent.
TABLE 1
Main analysis of laterite sample (w/%).

Element Fetotal FeO Ni Co Cr2O3 MnO SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO S P LOI
Content 40.09 1.14 0.97 0.089 2.86 0.82 12.55 6.52 0.3 4.65 0.035 0.0063 13.23

The X-ray diffraction pattern of the raw ore sample is given in Figure 1. It obviously demonstrates
that the main minerals are hematite and goethite, and also some serpentine and quartz exist. There
is no obvious peak show the existence of independent nickel minerals, it is inferred that nickel occurs
in the lattice of hematite and goethite or even some gangue minerals, preventing from upgrading of
laterite by traditional beneficiating processes.
Coal was used as reductant for laterite ore reduction, industrial analysis of which is given in Table 2.
This coal possesses higher fixed carbon, lower ash content and higher volatile matter content and
can act as a good quality reductant coal which was crushed to 85 per cent passing 0.075mm for use.

FIG 1 - X-ray diffraction pattern of raw laterite ore sample.

XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1550
SELECTIVE REDUCTION AND MAGNETIC SEPARATION OF LOW-GRADE NICKEL LATERITE ORE TO PRODUCE HIGH NICKEL CONCENTRATE

TABLE 2
Industrial analysis of coal (w/%).

Items Fcad Ad Vdaf Mad Stotal

Content 58.50 7.48 31.55 7.62 0.37

Limestone and SiO2 of chemical purity and with a size of 100 per cent passing 0.075mm was used
as flux to adjust the basicity of the blend. Based on previous study some additives were developed
to help to suppress the iron mineral reduction and improve the growth of the nickel crystallite to
achieve selective reduction. Additive CSA was used in this study.
Selective reduction and separation
Experimental flowsheet is depicted in Figure 2, consisting of coal-based selective reduction of nickel
laterite-magnetic separation of reduced sample. The row laterite ore was crushed to 75 per cent
passing 0.075 mm and mixed with coal, additives and flux. The blend was then loaded into a steel
cylinder with 13 mm diameter for briquetting, and briquettes with a size of Φ13 × 8 mm were prepared
by press, the briquettes were finished for further use by drying green briquettes at 100°C for 4 hours.
Dry briquettes were put into graphic crucible and roasted in a closed muffle furnace with nitrogen
metered inside. Reduced sample was cooled with anaerobic atmosphere and then finely ground in
XMQ240 × 90 ball mills to make the all size passing 0.075 mm. After grinding, the reduced samples
were upgraded in XCGS-73 Davis Tube and the characteristics of concentrate were evaluated by its
chemistry. All the wet magnetic separations were conducted at the magnetic field of 1800 Gs for
6 min.
In this study, the final concentrate from the wet magnetic separation was used to evaluate the effect
of selective reduction based on the metal grade and recovery; all the diagrams in this paper were
formed by chemical analysis of concentrate plotted against reducing parameters of raw materials.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Selective reduction roasting
Effect of reduction temperature
As shown in Figure 3, with an increase in the reduction temperature more nickel and less iron was
effectively extracted into concentrate from reduced sample by magnetic separation. Both Nickel
grade and recovery improved dramatically during 1100°C to 1250°C. The higher the reduction
temperature, the more nickel reduced and the bigger size of newly metal nickel while iron minerals
reduction was depressed by the additive, resulting in selective reduction and separation. However,
grade and recovery of nickel and iron became steady when the reduction temperature was beyond
1250°C. Comprehensively considering upgrading effect and energy consumption, the reduction
temperature is suggested at around 1250°C.
Nickel laterite ore Reductant Additives/flux

Briquetting

Selective reduction

Grinding

Magnetic separation

Concentrate Tailings

FIG 2 - Test flow sheet of selective reduction-wet magnetic separation.

XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1551
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100 100
90
80 90
70
TFe
60 TNi 80

Recovery %
50 --o-- Fe r ecovery

Grade %
Ni r ecovery
40 70
5
60
4
3 50
2
1 40
1100 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350
Reduction temperature °C
FIG 3 - Effect of reducing temperature on separation.

Effect of reduction time

Reduction time again metal recovery and grade of concentrate was depicted in Figure 4. It seems
that better nickel extraction could be obtained at shorter reduction time between 20min to 40min,
concentrate which contain nickel higher than 4 per cent and recovery about 80 per cent thus was
produced. However, the iron grade of the concentrate jumped from 70 per cent to 82 per cent when
the reduction time extended to over 60min while the nickel extraction was steady between 60 and
90 min. And nickel recovery dropped dramatically when reduction time was beyond 90 min.
The reason of the decrease of nickel extraction was probably that the metallic iron grew coarser
with the extending of the reduction time and the improvement of the iron extraction will low down
the nickel extraction. Therefore, reduction time is recommended at about 60 min leading to more
energy saving and high extraction efficiency.
Effect of reductant addition
The key factor of the nickel enrichment for this limonitic laterite was that the reduction must be
conducted under the strict atmosphere aiming to improve the nickel mineral reduction and suppress
iron mineral reduction. Coal addition thus was the most important and also the most influential
factor, as shown in Figure 4, both the two metal recovery and iron grade had dramatic improvement
when more reductant was added represented a well reduction, but this was harmful to nickel
extraction. With 1 per cent coal added, the concentrate with nickel grade as high as 7.9 per cent could
be produced, but poor nickel recovery of only 57.81 per cent was gained. It is probably the reason
that less coal reductant leads to inferior reduction of nickel oxides and part of iron oxides, resulting
in too low yield during magnetic separation, as shown in Figure 5. Therefore, it could be concluded
from Figures 5 and 6:
1. Iron minerals dominate in this limonitic laterite sample and obviously affect nickel extraction, a
proper reduction degree of iron minerals must be controlled to attain utmost nickel enrichment.

100 100
95
90 90
85
80 80
TFe
75 TNi
Recovery %

70 70
Grade %

--o-- Fe r ecovery
65 Ni r ecovery
60
5
4 50
3
40
2
1 30
0
20 40 60 80 100 120
Time min

FIG 4 - Effect of reducing time on separation.

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SELECTIVE REDUCTION AND MAGNETIC SEPARATION OF LOW-GRADE NICKEL LATERITE ORE TO PRODUCE HIGH NICKEL CONCENTRATE

100 100
90 90
80
80
70
70

Recovery %
60

Grade %
60 50
TFe
8 TNi 40
6 --o-- Fe r ecovery
Ni r ecovery 30
4
20
2
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Reductant addition %
FIG 5 - Effect of reductant on quality of concentrate of magnetic separation.

50 100
45 90
40
80
35
70
30

Grade %
Yield %

Yield 60
25 --o-- Fe
20 Ni 8
15 6
10 4
5 2
1 2 3 4 5 6
Reductant addition %
FIG 6 - Effect of reductant addition on magnetic separation yield.

2. From the reduction thermodynamics selective reduction of nickel oxides can be achieved by
adjusting reducing conditions, especially reducing atmosphere. To which the magnetic separation
is very sensitive, and hard to find a balance between high nickel grade and recovery.
Effect of basicity
One of ways to achieve selective reduction which aims at suppressing the iron mineral reduction
is to adjust basicity of feed blends for reduction. As shown in Figure 7, with a decrease in basicity
the nickel and iron grade of concentrate increased, especially the nickel grade. When the basicity
85 100
80 98
75 96
94
70
TFe 92
65
Recovery %

TNi 90
Grade %

60 --o-- Fe r ecovery
Ni r ecovery 88
7 86
6 70
5
4 60
3 50
2 40
1
0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11
Bacisity %

FIG 7 - Effect of blend basicity on separation.

XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1553
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FIG 8 - X-ray diffraction pattern of reduced sample with various basicities.

dropped from 0.06 to 0.07 the nickel grade and iron recovery became steady. It is interesting that
the nickel and iron recovery had an opposite performance with the change of bacisity, the reduction
of lower bacisity blend was helpful to improve nickel recovery and depressed the iron recovery even
at high iron grade. It was found that low basicity was an efficient way to achieve selective reduction
of iron and nickel minerals. This was probably that during the reduction much wustite was formed
and transferred to weakly reducible fayalite at lower basicity, as proven by the X-ray diffraction of
minerals at various basicities in Figure 8. The reduced sample with natural basicity of 0.11 which
was produced from the blend without any flux acted poor nickel extraction. Seen from the X-ray
diffraction, the main mineral of reduced sample at nature basicity is metallic iron which had a strong
signal represent good reduction of iron minerals. Also some peaks show the presence of spinel (Mg
(Al,Fe)2O4) and fayalite. Fayalite is the main phase of reduced sample at 0.07 basicity, the signal of
taenite and no obvious peak of metallic iron indicated that the selective reduction was obtained. The
formation of lots of fayalite phase seems negative to reduction of iron minerals other than nickel
minerals. The reason why reduction of nickel minerals was not affected by low basicity is still under
studying.
Effect of additive
Addition of additives is an effective way to achieve the selective reduction and improve nickel
extraction of separation. Extensive studies were conducted by the authors to obtain concentrate with
high nickel grade and recovery whereas low iron recovery and yield which is mostly decided by the
selectivity of reduction. One additive CAS was invented to help increase the nickel extraction and the
effect of its dosage on reduction and separation is illustrated in Figure 9. It is shown that without
the additive the nickel grade in concentrate was lower than 3 per cent, it is difficult to gain selective
reduction of nickel oxides similar to that (Zhu, Cui and Pan et al, 2008)*. With the increase of additive
addition the nickel grade was higher than 5 per cent and in the mean time the iron recovery was
decreased. When the addition reached 3 per cent and beyond it seems that the grade and recovery of
Ni and Fe became steady. So 3 per cent addition was suggested as the optimum dosage. The reason
85 100

95
TFe
80 TNi 90
Recovery %

--o-- Fe r ecovery
Grade %

Ni r ecovery
85

5 60
55
4
50
3 45
2 40
0 1 2 3 4 5
Additive addition %

FIG 9 - Effect of additive on separation (3.0 per cent coal addition, 0.07 basicity and reducing at 1250°C for 60min).

XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1554
SELECTIVE REDUCTION AND MAGNETIC SEPARATION OF LOW-GRADE NICKEL LATERITE ORE TO PRODUCE HIGH NICKEL CONCENTRATE

for this additive helping to increase the nickel extraction is probably explained that one element
in the additive possesses strong affinity to nickel so that it can improve the reduction of nickel and
enhance the growth of newly formed metallic nickel, leading to good beneficiation properties during
magnetic concentration process.
Final concentrate chemistry
In order to produce the final concentrate the whole process test was done under the conditions that:
reducing roasting temperature at 1250°C for 60 min, coal addition was 3 per cent, additive addition
was 3 per cent and blend basicity was 0.07. The result of the test was summarised in Table 3 and the
main chemical analysis of concentrate was tabulated in Table 4. It can be seen that the concentrate
assaying high grade of 5.1 per cent Ni and 82.66 per cent Fetotal was produced at low yield of only
24.6 per cent from low grade nickel limonitic ore, this concentrate with low impurities as well would
be a good quality burden for alloy production.
TABLE 3
The result of whole process test.

Reduced Sample Separation Yield Concentrate

Nickel Recovery % Iron Recovery %
Ni % TFe % % Ni % TFe %
48.97 1.27 24.60 5.10 82.66 98.79 41.52

TABLE 4
Chemical analysis of concentrate (w/%).

Element Fetotal Ni Cr MnO SiO2 CaO MgO Al2O3 P S

Concentrate 82.66 5.10 0.38 0.28 3.53 0.96 0.57 2.86 0.016 0.29

CONCLUSIONS
Based on achieved significantly selective reduction of low grade limonitic laterite ore containing
0.97 per cent Ni, high nickel concentrate assaying 5.1 per cent is manufactured successfully at a
recovery of 98.79 per cent by selective reduction-magnetic separation process.
The adjustment of basicity, the proportioning of additive in the blends and optimisation of reducing
parameters helped to achieve the selective reduction of nickel oxide and to improve the nickel
extraction.
The selective reduction-magnetic separation process is an ideal process to reject as high as over
75 per cent of the gangue as tailings while producing concentrate with high metal grade and recovery,
which can dramatically reduce investment and save much energy for the downstream processes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for
providing the project of Theoretic Study and Process Development on Manufacturing High Nickel
Concentrate from Low Grade Laterite (No. 50974135) with funding. Also the financial support with
the project of Key Technology for Highly Efficient Utilization of Low Grade Laterite (NDRC-Hitech
Office 2009-606) by National Development and Reform Commission was greatly appreciated.

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XXV INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS (IMPC) 2010 PROCEEDINGS / BRISBANE, QLD, AUSTRALIA / 6 - 10 SEPTEMBER 2010 1556

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