| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2025 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Drying, Roasting, Calcining and Agglomeration of Feedstocks
|
| Presentation Title |
Investigating Ferronickel Concentrate Oxidation Behavior during Drying after Wet Physical Upgrading |
| Author(s) |
Wei Lv, Samuel Marcuson, Mansoor Barati |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Wei Lv |
| Abstract Scope |
As high-grade nickel sulfide resources are gradually depleted, there is a growing need to explore low-grade ultramafic nickel sulfides as a potential resource. An environmentally friendly two-stage solid-state thermal extraction method has been proposed to extract nickel from the ultramafic sulfide concentrate by the addition of iron. In this process, nickel precipitates as ferronickel particles, while sulfur is captured by iron to form FeS, minimizing SO2 emissions. A high-grade ferronickel concentrate is obtained after thermal treatment and wet physical separation steps. However, the ferronickel is partially oxidized during the drying process, forming a wustite phase that reduces nickel recovery in the alloy phase. This study investigates the oxidation behavior of ferronickel concentrate during drying after wet physical upgrading and tests various drying conditions to mitigate oxidation. Metallic iron powder was also used for comparison under different drying conditions. Results indicate that optimizing drying conditions can minimize and potentially avoid oxidation. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Copper / Nickel / Cobalt, Pyrometallurgy, Sustainability |