Controllable Phase Transformation in Extracting Valuable Metals from Chinese Low-Grade Nickel Sulphide Ore

Abstract

In this work, a two-stage sulphuric acid roasting and water leaching system was chosen to extract valuable metals from Chinese low-grade nickel sulphide ore. By optimizing the two-stage roasting process, first roasting temperature at 295°C with particle size of 80–91 μm with an acid-ore ratio of 1.1:1 for 2 h, and second roasting temperature at 620°C for 2 h, it was found that more than 98% of the nickel and 99% of the copper but less than 14.38% of Fe were leached into the water. Attempts were made via x-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, chemical phase analysis, and differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis to reveal the phase transformations for Ni, Cu, and Mg, which could be expressed as mineral phases → sulphates hydrate → sulphates and for iron as mineral phases → hydrated ferrous sulphate → ferric sulphates and ferric oxide → oxide. The results of this work suggest that a controllable phase transformation by using a two-stage sulphuric acid roasting process is a feasible method for efficiently extracting valuable metals from Chinese nickel sulphide ore.