Processing Ultramafic Low-grade Nickel Ores by Desliming-flotation
The Thompson Nickel Belt,located in Northern Manitoba,Canada,contains more than 400 million tonnes of ultramafic low-grade nickel mineralization in 9 deposits.One of these,the Pipe deposit,was mined between 1971 and 1983 producing a Ni concentrate of 9% to 11% grade at 73% recovery.The operation was terminated because the poor recovery,low Ni grade and high MgO content of the concentrate made processing this ore uneconomical at the metal prices prevailing at that time.Vale Inco is now re-evaluating these deposits with the intent of providing a new source of concentrate for its Thompson integrated processing facility.It is known that serpentine slimes coating on the sulphide surfaces are responsible for the poor metallurgy.Various desliming methods were tested including settling,elutriating,tabling and hydrocycloning.Hydrocycloning has proven to be the most effective means of desliming.With a feed assaying 0.70% Ni and 33% MgO,a rougher flotation concentrate assaying 22.7% Ni and 4.8%MgO was produced at a Ni recovery of 62.5% (relative to the feed to grinding),with no utilization of slimes dispersants.Another 16.6% Ni recovery was achieved in scavenger flotation resulting in a total Ni recovery of 79.1%.Batch flotation tests using various flowsheet configurations to optimize the grinding,desliming,reagentizing and flotation conditions are in progress.
Nickel Ore Ultramafic Desliming Hydrocyclone Serpentine MgO
Z.F.Dai P.Wells M.Q.Xu
Vale Inco Technical Services Limited,Mississauga,Canada
国际会议
XXIV International Mineral Processing Congress(第24届国际矿物加工大会)
北京
英文
4128-4137
2008-09-24（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）