Nickel is widely used in metal industry because of its excellent properties. Nickel ore is the main source of nickel metal. In order to obtain high grade nickel concentrate raw materials, the process is particularly important. Due to the existence of different types of nickel ores in nature, their beneficiation methods and processes are also different. Generally, nickel ores can be divided into copper nickel sulfide ores and nickel oxide ores. The following will mainly introduce the beneficiation process of copper nickel ore after pretreatment.
Based on the properties of copper nickel ore, flotation is generally adopted as the beneficiation method, while magnetic separation and gravity separation are usually used as auxiliary beneficiation methods for copper nickel ore. The flotation methods of copper nickel ores can be divided into four types: preferential flotation method, mixed flotation method, mixed preferential flotation method and mixed preferential flotation+tailings recovery method. Next, we will introduce the flotation process of these four copper nickel ores in detail.
When analyzing the copper nickel ore, if the copper content in the ore is much higher than the nickel content, the direct or partial preferential flotation process can be used. The process is as follows: after crushing, screening, grinding and grading, the raw ore is put in for preferential flotation. After flotation, the copper concentrate can be obtained. In order to obtain nickel ore concentrate, it is necessary to conduct two-stage flotation on the tailings of the first stage flotation. After two-stage flotation, nickel concentrate can be obtained. The advantage of adopting the preferential flotation process is that copper concentrate with low nickel content can be obtained.
When the copper content in the copper nickel raw ore is lower than the nickel content, mixed flotation can be used. The specific process is as follows: the ore treated before beneficiation is pumped into the flotation machine by the slurry pump for flotation to obtain copper nickel mixed concentrate. In order to obtain copper concentrate and nickel concentrate respectively, copper nickel separation technology, namely mixed concentrate separation process and high nickel matte separation process, shall be adopted. The high nickel matte separation process is generally used to treat copper nickel ores with fine particle size and very closely embedded, that is, its mixed concentrate can be smelted into high nickel matte, and then the copper concentrate and nickel concentrate can be obtained by the flotation operation of high nickel matte. The iron content in high nickel matte and the cooling rate will affect the separation effect. When smelting high nickel matte, ensure that the iron content is controlled at 2% - 4%. When the high nickel matte slowly decreases from 800 ℃ to 200 ℃, the separation effect of copper and nickel can be effectively improved.
If the ore particle size is relatively coarse and the copper nickel intercalation relationship is not very close, the mixed concentrate separation method can be used. Specific; The process is as follows: the raw ore enters the flotation machine to separate the copper nickel mixed concentrate, and the copper nickel mixed concentrate enters the next stage of flotation process. After specific reagents are given, the copper concentrate and nickel concentrate can be obtained. Lime cyanide method, lime sodium sulfide method and bisulphite method are often used to separate the mixed concentrate of copper nickel ores. Sometimes, the separation effect of copper nickel concentrate can be improved by increasing the slurry temperature.
There are many kinds of nickel minerals in copper nickel ores, such as pentlandite, goethite, etc. The floatability of these nickel ores is also different. When the floatability of different nickel minerals in the ore varies greatly, after the copper nickel mixed flotation, in addition to the flotation of the concentrate, the tailings of the mixed flotation should also be recovered. The tailings are mainly recovered by flotation method. After flotation, nickel containing minerals with poor floatability can be separated. Such recovery process can improve the recovery rate of concentrate and the utilization rate of materials.
The above are four common copper nickel ore flotation processes. It can be seen from the above that different beneficiation processes will be adopted for copper nickel ores with different properties and characteristics. Therefore, before the design of ore dressing process, ore washability test is very necessary. Xinhai Ore dressing can provide you with reliable ore dressing tests, and design efficient and customized dressing equipment according to your concentrator and budget. At the same time, we have professional equipment installation and debugging technicians and perfect after-sales service, so you can rest assured that you can choose Xinhai Mining Equipment Co., Ltd.
