Thermal upgrading of nickel from limonite by means of selective reduction

Abstract

X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy energy dispersion spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) measurements were used to investigate the mineralogical characteristics and distribution of data set in limonite soil from Indonesia. The findings point to a complicated inner core in laterite ore. Ni, Fe, Mg, Al, and Si levels in limonite are 1.4, 50.5, 1.81, 4.86 and 16.5 wt %, respectively. The iron oxide/oxyhydroxide content of limonite is 94.4 and 5.6 % silicate. DTA shows that limonite has a phase transition in the low temperature (200 – 300 °C) with the goethite transformation to hematite. This phase is good optimalization for nickel diffusion in the iron. Moreover, for this limonite, the thermal upgrading was used as a good method.