Nickel recovery from a high ferrous content laterite ore

摘要

A process is described for the recovery of nickel and/or cobalt from laterite or partially oxidized lateritic ores having a substantial proportion of the iron present in the ferrous state. The process includes providing a laterite or partially oxidized laterite ore wherein a substantial proportion of the iron present in the ore is in the ferrous state; acid leaching the ore to provide a product leach solution containing at least ferrous iron, nickel and cobalt together with acid soluble impurities; and recovering the nickel and cobalt from the product leach solution with a selective ion exchange resin in an ion exchange process leaving the ferrous iron and other acid soluble impurities in the raffinate.

主权项

1. A heap leach process for the recovery of nickel, cobalt, or mixtures thereof from laterite or partially oxidized laterite ores having a substantial proportion of iron present in the ferrous state comprising:
a) providing a laterite or partially oxidized laterite ore containing ferrous iron wherein the ferrous iron is about 30% or greater by weight of a total iron content in the ore; b) heap leaching the ore with an acidified solution to provide a product leach solution containing at least ferrous iron, and a first metal selected from nickel, cobalt, or a mixture thereof together with acid soluble impurities; c) recovering the first metal from the product leach solution with a selective ion exchange resin in an ion exchange process producing a raffinate and leaving the ferrous iron and other acid soluble impurities in the raffinate; d) stripping the first metal from the selective ion exchange resin to produce an eluate containing the first metal; and e) recovering the first metal from the eluate by either
i. neutralizing the eluate to a pH of about 8-9 to precipitate the nickel as nickel hydroxide, cobalt as cobalt hydroxide, or a mixed nickel/cobalt hydroxide product, orii. separating cobalt from the eluate by precipitation, solvent extraction or other known methods, and then subsequently neutralizing the eluate to a pH of about 8-9 to precipitate nickel as a nickel hydroxide product.