Copper-nickel ores

Nickel occurs in nature mainly in silicate and sulfide compounds, which form oxidized nickel or sulfide copper-nickel ores.

Sulfide ores occur as solid rock masses among basic and ultrabasic rocks; in such deposits, nickel is accompanied by copper, mainly in the form of chalcopyrite; cobalt and platinum group metals are also found. The nickel content in such deposits ranges from 0.3 to 5.5%, the mass fraction of copper is usually 0.6-10%.

Table No. 1 shows the classic composition of copper-nickel ores.

Table 1. Composition of copper-nickel sulfide ores, %.

Flotation enrichment of copper-nickel ores can be collective and selective , it depends primarily on the conditions of obtaining the final product, or rather on the market for which the enterprise's production is oriented. Without going into details of various methods and modes of flotation processes, the immense amount of added reagents and substances, we will define the main differences between various flotation methods. During collective flotation, copper-nickel concentrate is obtained by separating waste rock. The purpose of selective flotation is the complete separation of copper from nickel, however, selective flotation does not ensure complete separation of these two elements. After all, it is unlikely that there will be a method in the world whose "efficiency" will be 100%, right? The products of selection in this case will be copper concentrate with a relatively low nickel content and nickel-copper concentrate, which differs from the ore by a higher Ni:Cu ratio.

Sometimes it happens that flotation enrichment does not allow to obtain, or is excessively labor-intensive in obtaining the final product with the required concentration values. Sometimes flotation enrichment is preceded by magnetic separation, aimed at the separation of pyrrhotine into an independent concentrate, the possibility of which is due to the high magnetic susceptibility of pyrrhotine.

Without going into the intricacies of various methods of enrichment of copper-nickel ores, since this goes beyond the scope of writing one article and includes dozens, if not hundreds of books, we will highlight the most important principles that are the foundation of modern algorithms for conducting enrichment processes.

Each enrichment process is based on the use of various properties of ore components. Just as there are no identical fingerprints in the world, each element of the periodic table has its own properties, both chemical and physical, the consideration of which can be used and is used in separation processes. Such properties include differences in friction coefficients, wettability of particle surfaces by liquid, various electrolytic and electrochemical properties, and so on. But these properties depend on the state of the ore, its size, the compounds in which the extracted element is located, various accompanying elements in the ore, which makes mining concentrators think in advance about choosing one or another method for conducting enrichment.

To speed up the process of qualitative and quantitative component analysis of ores, for timely and correct decisions towards improving the enrichment process, the use of flow analyzers of the substance will help, which allow you to immediately receive information on the component qualitative and quantitative composition. The ARP-1C device allows you to determine the concentration of elements in ore from Ca to U in the ranges of mass fractions from 0.05% to 90%. For a more detailed acquaintance with the device, follow the link ARP-1C.