Roasting nickel

Roasting of sulfide and sulfate ores (ZnS, pyrites, CU2S, CuCoS, nickel sulfides)... 

The matte can be treated in different ways, depending on the copper content and on the desired product. In some cases, the copper content of the Bessemer matte is low enough to allow the material to be cast directly into sulfide anodes for electrolytic refining. Usually it is necessary first to separate the nickel and copper sulfides. The copper—nickel matte is cooled slowly for ca 4 d to faciUtate grain growth of mineral crystals of copper sulfide, nickel—sulfide, and a nickel—copper alloy. This matte is pulverized, the nickel and copper sulfides isolated by flotation, and the alloy extracted magnetically and refined electrolyticaHy. The nickel sulfide is cast into anodes for electrolysis or, more commonly, is roasted to nickel oxide and further reduced to metal for refining by electrolysis or by the carbonyl method. Alternatively, the nickel sulfide may be roasted to provide a nickel oxide sinter that is suitable for direct use by the steel industry. 

HydrometaHurgical Processes. The hydrometaHurgical treatments of oxide ores involve leaching with ammonia or with sulfuric acid. In the ammoniacal leaching process, the nickel oxide component of the ore first is reduced selectively. Then the ore is leached with ammonia which removes the nickel into solution, from which it is precipitated as nickel carbonate by heating. A nickel oxide product used in making steel is produced by roasting the carbonate. 

It is good practice to keep concentrations of airborne nickel in any chemical form as low as possible and certainly below the relevant standard. Local exhaust ventilation is the preferred method, particularly for powders, but personal respirator protection may be employed where necessary. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) personal exposure limit (PEL) for all forms of nickel except nickel carbonyl is 1 mg/m. The ACGIH TLVs are respectively 1 mg/m for Ni metal, insoluble compounds, and fume and dust from nickel sulfide roasting, and 0.1 mg/m for soluble nickel compounds. The ACGIH is considering whether to lower the TLVs for all forms of nickel to 0.05 mg/m, based on nonmalignant respiratory effects in experimental animals. 

The obvious destination for nickel waste is in the manufacture of stainless steel, which consumes 65% of new refined nickel production. Stainless steel is produced in a series of roasting and smelting operations. These can be hospitable to the various forms of nickel chemical waste. In 1993, 3 x 10 t of nickel from nickel-containing wastes were processed into 30 x 10 t of stainless steel remelt alloy (205,206) (see Recycling, nonferrous metals). This quantity is expected to increase dramatically as development of the technology of waste recycle coUection improves. 

The principal direct raw materials used to make sulfuric acid are elemental sulfur, spent (contaminated and diluted) sulfuric acid, and hydrogen sulfide. Elemental sulfur is by far the most widely used. In the past, iron pyrites or related compounds were often used but as of the mid-1990s this type of raw material is not common except in southern Africa, China, Ka2akhstan, Spain, Russia, and Ukraine (96). A large amount of sulfuric acid is also produced as a by-product of nonferrous metal smelting, ie, roasting sulfide ores of copper, lead, molybdenum, nickel, 2inc, or others. 

Lateritic Ores. The process used at the Nicaro plant in Cuba requires that the dried ore be roasted in a reducing atmosphere of carbon monoxide at 760°C for 90 minutes. The reduced ore is cooled and discharged into an ammoniacal leaching solution. Nickel and cobalt are held in solution until the soflds are precipitated. The solution is then thickened, filtered, and steam heated to eliminate the ammonia. Nickel and cobalt are precipitated from solution as carbonates and sulfates. This method (8) has several disadvantages (/) a relatively high reduction temperature and a long reaction time (2) formation of nickel oxides (J) a low recovery of nickel and the contamination of nickel with cobalt and (4) low cobalt recovery. Modifications to this process have been proposed but all include the undesirable high 760°C reduction temperature (9). 

Calcining, sintering or smelting of nickel copper matte or acid leaching or electrorefining of roasted matte Coal soots, coal tar, pitch and coal tar fumes Hardwood dusts... 

Flash smelting is the most common process, but electric smelting is used for more complex raw materials when increased flexibility is needed. Both processes use dried concentrates. Electric smelting requires a roasting step before smelting to reduce sulfur content and volatiles. Older nickel-smelting processes, such as... 

The production of cobalt is usually subsidiary to that of copper or nickel and the methods employed differ widely, depending on which of these it is associated with. In general the ore is subjected to appropriate roasting treatment so as to remove gangue material as a slag and produce a speiss of mixed metal and oxides. In the case of arsenical ores, AS2O6 is condensed and provides a valuable byproduct. In the case of copper ores, the primary process... 

About 70% of the western world s supply of nickel comes from iron and nickel sulfide ores that were brought close to the surface nearly 2 billion years ago by the violent impact of a huge meteor at Sudbury, Ontario. The ore is first roasted (heated in air) to form nickel(II) oxide, which is reduced to the metal either elec-trolytically or by reaction with hydrogen gas in the first step of the Mond process ... 

The scheme E involves dead roasting of the concentrate by which Fe203 forms and the nickel content is oxidized to nickel ferrite (NiFe204). This material is selectively reduced to produce an iron-nickel alloy which is then leached in an ammoniacal ammonium carbonate solution for nickel recovery, leaving hematite as a leach residue. 

The scheme F involves sulphating roasting. The conditions are so chosen that iron is converted to its oxidic form (Fe203) while nickel and copper are converted to nickel sulfate and copper sulfate respectively. The product is subsequently water leached to take the sulfates into solution, leaving the iron oxide in the leach residue. 

The ammoniacal systems do not cause corrosion problems and this allows use of standard materials of construction. The process is mainly applicable to high iron limonitic laterites. The amount of acceptability of the transition ore (S-ore) is limited due to nickel loss caused by forsterite formation during the roasting process. 

Nevertheless, manganese nodules can, at best, be considered to be similar to land-based nickel laterites, and consequently most of the processing techniques that have been tried are similar to those used on lateritic ores. Reduction roasting followed by ammonia leaching, as in the Nicaro process, and high-temperature sulfuric acid leaching, as in the Moa Bay operation, have been extensively tried to process nodules. 

Ammoniacal leaching is typically applied to oxidic nickel-bearing materials that have been subjected to a reductive roast, which converts the cobalt and nickel present to their metallic form (or as ferro-alloys) and most of the iron to Fe11.106,107... 

Beaver ponds downstream from an abandoned copper-nickel ore roast yard near Sudbury, Ontario, were devoid of fish and had reduced macroinvertebrate taxon richness and diversity when compared to upstream ponds. Nickel water concentrations, in pg Ni/L, were 57 in upstream ponds,... 

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