Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals
- 1st Edition - July 18, 2011
- Latest edition
- Authors: Frank K. Crundwell, Michael Moats, Venkoba Ramachandran, Timothy Robinson, W. G. Davenport
- Language: English
This book describes and explains the methods by which three related ores and recyclables are made into high purity metals and chemicals, for materials processing. It focuses on… Read more
Description
Description
Nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals are key elements for materials processing. They occur together in one book because they (i) map together on the periodic table (ii) occur together in many ores and (iii) are natural partners for further materials processing and materials manufacturing. They all are, for example, important catalysts – with platinum group metals being especially important for reducing car and truck emissions. Stainless steels and CoNiFe airplane engine super alloys are examples of practical usage.
The product emphasises a sequential, building-block approach to the subject gained through the author’s previous writings (particularly Extractive Metallurgy of Copper in four editions) and extensive experience. Due to the multiple metals involved and because each metal originates in several types of ore – e.g. tropical ores and arctic ores this necessitates a multi-contributor work drawing from multiple networks and both engineering and science.
Key features
Key features
- Synthesizes detailed review of the fundamental chemistry and physics of extractive metallurgy with practical lessons from industrial consultancies at the leading international plants
- Discusses Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals for the first time in one book
- Reviews extraction of multiple metals from the same tropical or arctic ore
- Industrial, international and multidisciplinary focus on current standards of production supports best practice use of industrial resources
Readership
Readership
Table of contents
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
1. Overview
1.1. Extraction of Nickel and Cobalt
1.2. Extraction of Cobalt From Copper–COBALT Ores
1.3. Extraction of Platinum-Group Metals From Sulfide Ores
1.4. Recovering Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum-Group Metals From End-of-Use Scrap
1.5. Organization of Major Themes and Topics
1.6. Summary
2. Nickel Production, Price, and Extraction Costs
2.1. Applications of Nickel
2.2. Location of Nickel Mines and Extraction Plants
2.3. Price of Nickel
2.4. Costs of Nickel Extraction
2.5. Summary
3. Upgrading of Laterite Ores
3.1. Laterite Ores
3.2. Upgrading of Laterite Ores
3.3. Extent of Upgrading
3.4. Economic Justification for Upgrading Laterites
3.5. Principles and Methods of Upgrading Laterites
3.6. Evaluation
3.7. Summary
4. Overview of the Smelting of Nickel Laterite to Ferronickel
4.1. Feed to Ferronickel Smelting
4.2. Ferronickel Product
4.3. Principles of Ferronickel Smelting
4.4. Brief Process Description
5. Dewatering and Calcination of Laterite Ores
5.1. Dewatering of the Upgraded Laterite Ore
5.2. Control of the Dewatering Kiln
5.3. Calcination and Reduction of Dewatered Laterite
5.4. Chemistry
5.5. Products
5.6. Appraisal
5.7. Summary
6. Smelting of Laterite Ores to Ferronickel
6.1. reactions in the Electric Furnace
6.2. Nickel Recovery
6.3. Melting Temperatures
6.4. Industrial Smelting Furnaces
6.5. Method of Heating the Furnace
6.6. Electrodes
6.7. Furnace Operation
6.8. Control
6.9. Appraisal and Future Trends
6.10. Summary
7. Refining Molten Ferronickel
7.1. Phosphorus Removal
7.2. Sulfur Removal
7.3. Industrial Refining
7.4. Removing Other Impurities
7.5. Casting of Ferronickel
7.6. Appraisal
7.7. Summary
8. Smelting Laterite Concentrates to Sulfide Matte
8.1. Matte Production Flowsheets
8.2. Pt Inco Process
8.3. Le Nickel Process – Making Matte from Molten Refined Ferronickel
8.4. Process Appraisal
8.5. Summary
9. Roasting Matte to Nickel Oxide and Metal
9.1. Matte Roasting Objectives
9.2. Chemistry
9.3. Products
9.4. Industrial Roasting
9.5. Re-Roasting
9.6. Fluidization
9.7. Advantages Of Fluidized Beds
9.8. Industrial Operation
9.9. Reduction Roasting
9.10. Nickel Recovery
9.11. Sulfur Capture
9.12. Summary
10. Overview of the Hydrometallurgical Processing of Laterite Ores
10.1. Introduction
10.2. Alternatives to Mixed Sulfide Precipitation
10.3. Downstream Processing
10.4. Summary
11. High-Temperature Sulfuric Acid Leaching of Laterite Ores
11.1. Chapter Objectives
11.2. Sulfuric Acid Leaching
11.3. Chemistry
11.4. Autoclave Operation
11.5. Process Appraisal
11.6. Summary
12. Precipitation Of Nickel−Cobalt Sulfide
12.1. Reasons for Making a Mixed-Sulfide Precipitate
12.2. Flowsheet
12.3. Autoclave Exit Slurry Neutralization
12.4. Solution Reneutralization
12.5. Removal of Zinc and Copper From Solution by Sulfide Precipitation
12.6. Precipitation of Nickel−Cobalt Sulfide
12.7. Product Destination
12.8. Appraisal
12.9. Summary
13. Extraction of Nickel and Cobalt from Sulfide Ores
13.1. Nickel Sulfide Ores
13.2. Extraction of Nickel and Cobalt from Sulfide Ores
13.3. Hydrometallurgical Alternatives to Matte Smelting
13.4. Voisey's Bay Process for Leaching Nickel Concentrates
13.5. Heap Leaching of Nickel Sulfide Ore
13.6. Summary
14. Production of Nickel Concentrates from Sulfide Ores
14.1. The Advantages of Grinding and Concentration
14.2. Crushing and Grinding
14.3. Comminution Steps
14.4. Control of Particle Size
14.5. Recent Developments
14.6. Summary
15. Production of Nickel Concentrate from Ground Sulfide Ore
15.1. Need for Concentration
15.2. Principles of Froth Flotation
15.3. Flotation Cells
15.4. Flotation Chemicals
15.5. Specific Flotation Procedures for Pentlandite Ores
15.6. Flotation Products
15.7. Operation and Control
15.8. Recent Developments
15.9. Summary
16. Separation of Chalcopyrite from Pentlandite by Flotation
16.1. Chapter Objectives
16.2. Separation of Chalcopyrite and Pentlandite
16.3. Industrial Practice
16.4. Grinding
16.5. Summary
17. Smelting of Nickel Sulfide Concentrates by Roasting and Electric Furnace Smelting
17.1. Principles of Roasting and Smelting
17.2. Chemistry of Roasting
17.3. Electric Furnace Smelting
17.4. Industrial Electric Furnaces
17.5. Summary
18. Flash Smelting of Nickel Sulfide Concentrates
18.1. Objective of the Process – Nickel Enrichment
18.2. Advantages and Disadvantages
18.3. Extent of Oxidation
18.4. Chemistry
18.5. Industrial Flash Smelting
18.6. Outotec-Type Flash Furnace
18.7. Inco-Type Flash Furnace
18.8. Peripheral Equipment
18.9. Operation and Control of the Flash Furnace
18.10. Appraisal
18.11. Recent Trends
18.12. Summary
19. Converting – Final Oxidation of Iron From Molten Matte
19.1. Starting and Finishing Compositions
19.2. Chemistry of Converting
19.3. Principles of Converting
19.4. Behavior of Other Metals
19.5. Choice of Final Iron Content
19.6. End-Point Determination
19.7. Capture of Sulfur Dioxide
19.8. Tuyeres and Oxygen Enrichment
19.9. Nitrogen-Shrouded Blast Injection
19.10. Converter Control
19.11. Alternatives to Peirce-Smith Converting
19.12. Direct to Low-Iron Matte Flash Smelting
19.13. Summary
20. Sulfur Dioxide Capture in Sulfuric Acid and Other Products
20.1. Nickel Extraction Offgases
20.2. Production of Sulfuric Acid from Roaster and Flash Furnace Offgases
20.3. Gas Cooling, Cleaning, and Drying
20.4. Oxidation of Sulfur Dioxide to Sulfur Trioxide
20.5. Catalyst for the Oxidation of Sulfur Dioxide
20.6. Making Acid from Sulfur Trioxide
20.7. Double-Contact Acid-Making
20.8. Acid Plant Products
20.9. Environmental Performance of the Nickel Industry
20.10. Making Sulfuric Acid for the Leaching of Nickel Laterite
20.11. Summary
21. Slow Cooling and Solidification of Converter Matte
21.1. Solidification and Slow Cooling Process
21.2. Industrial Matte Casting, Solidification and Slow Cooling
21.3. Concentrate Destinations
21.4. Summary
22. Carbonyl Refining of Impure Nickel Metal
22.1. Chemistry of the Process
22.2. Industrial Ambient Pressure Carbonylation
22.3. Decomposition of Nickel Carbonyl
22.4. High-Pressure Carbonyl Refining
22.5. Appraisal
22.6. Summary
23. Hydrometallurgical Production of High-Purity Nickel and Cobalt
23.1. Refining of Sulfide Precipitates from Laterite Leaching Operations
23.2. Refining of Nickel Mattes from Smelting Operations
23.3. Appraisal
23.4. Summary
24. Leaching of Nickel Sulfide Mattes and Precipitates
24.1. Chlorine Leaching
24.2. Oxygen–Ammonia Leaching
24.3. Leaching by Sulfuric Acid Solutions using Oxygen
24.4. Appraisal
24.5. Summary
25. Separation of Nickel and Cobalt by Solvent Extraction
25.1. Chapter Objectives
25.2. Principles of Solvent Extraction
25.3. Chloride Solvent Extraction
25.4. Solvent Extraction in Sulfate Solutions
25.5. Solvent Extraction in Ammoniacal Solutions
25.6. Solvent Extraction in Sulfate and Chloride Solutions
25.7. Diluents
25.8. Washing and Scrubbing the Organic
25.9. Impurity Removal
25.10. Appraisal
25.11. Summary
26. Electrowinning of Nickel from Purified Nickel Solutions
26.1. Objectives of this Chapter
26.2. Electrowinning Nickel from Chloride Electrolyte
26.3. Electrowinning Nickel from Sulfate Solutions
26.4. New Developments in Nickel Electrowinning
26.5. Other Electrolytic Nickel Processes
26.6. Appraisal
26.7. Summary
27. Hydrogen Reduction of Nickel from Ammoniacal Sulfate Solutions
27.1. Process Chemistry
27.2. Industrial Applications
27.3. Industrial Production of Nickel Powder
27.4. Appraisal
27.5. Summary
28. Cobalt – Occurrence, Production, Use and Price
28.1. Occurrence and Extraction
28.2. Recycling of Cobalt
28.3. Uses of Cobalt
28.4. Global Mine Production
28.5. Price
28.6. Summary
29. Extraction of Cobalt from Nickel Laterite and Sulfide Ores
29.1. Cobalt Extraction from Nickel Laterite Ore
29.2. Refining of Cobalt
29.3. Extraction of Cobalt from Nickel Sulfide Ores
29.4. Summary
30. Production of Cobalt from the Copper–Cobalt Ores of the Central African Copperbelt
30.1. Typical Ore Deposit
30.2. Mining
30.3. Extraction of Cobalt and Copper from Weathered Ore
30.4. Exploiting the Cobalt–Copper Sulfide Ore Layer
30.5. Summary
31. Platinum-Group Metals, Production, Use and Extraction Costs
31.1. Uses of the Platinum-Group Elements
31.2. Mining of Platinum-Group Elements
31.3. Extraction of Platinum-Group Metals
31.4. Prices
31.5. Costs of Extraction of Platinum-Group Metals
31.6. Summary
32. Overview of the Extraction of Platinum-Group Metals
33. Production of Flotation Concentrates Containing Platinum-Group Metals
33.1. Ores and Concentrates
33.2. Ores Containing Platinum-Group Metals
33.3. South African Ores Containing Platinum-Group Metals
33.4. Production of Flotation Concentrate from The Merensky Reef
33.5. UG2 Ores and the Problem of Chromite
33.6. Flotation Reagents and Conditions
33.7. Improving Recovery of Platinum-Group Elements to Concentrate
33.8. Gravity Separation
33.9. Recent Developments
33.10. Summary
34. Extraction of Platinum-Group Metals from Russian Ores
34.1. Nickel Copper and Platinum Ores from Norilsk-Talnakh
34.2. Russian Production
34.3. Recent Developments
34.4. Summary
35. Smelting and Converting of Sulfide Concentrates Containing Platinum-Group Metals
35.1. Major Process Steps
35.2. Concentrate Drying
35.3. Smelting the Concentrates
35.4. Converting the Furnace Matte
35.5. Recent Developments in Smelting and Converting in The Platinum Industry
35.6. Summary
36. Separation of the Platinum-Group Metals from Base Metal Sulfides, and the Refining of Nickel, Copper and Cobalt
36.1. Overview of the Refining of the Platinum-Group Metals
36.2. Objectives of This Chapter
36.3. Base Metal Refineries Where Nickel is Produced as Nickel Sulfate
36.4. Base Metal Refineries Where Nickel is Produced as Powder by Hydrogen Reduction
36.5. Base Metals Refinery Where Nickel is Produced as Nickel Cathode
36.6. Appraisal
36.7. Summary
37. Refining of the Platinum-Group Metals
37.1. Objectives of this Chapter
37.2. Concentrate Composition
37.3. Separation Techniques Used in the Refining of the Platinum-Group Metals
37.4. Refining Efficiency
37.5. Classification of Refining Processes
37.6. Lonmin's Western Platinum Refinery
37.7. Krastsvetmet's Refinery at Krasnoyarsk
37.8. Appraisal of the Precipitation Processes
37.9. The Johnson Matthey/Anglo American Platinum Process
37.10. The Acton Refinery Process
37.11. Appraisal of the Solvent-Extraction Processes
37.12. Impala Platinum's Ion-Exchange Process
37.13. Appraisal of the Ion-Exchange Processes
37.14. Summary
38. Recycling of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum-Group Metals
38.1. Recycling of Platinum-Group Metals from Automobile Catalyst
38.2. Recycling of Nickel in Stainless Steel
38.3. Recycling of Cobalt
38.4. Summary
Appendix A. Ferronickel Smelting of Non-Tropical Laterite Ores
Appendix B. Caron Process for Processing Nickel Laterites
Appendix C. Flash Cooling of Autoclaves
Appendix D. Counter-Current Decantation of Leaching Slurries
Appendix E. Recovering Nickel-, Copper-, Cobalt- and Platinum-Group Elements from Slags
Appendix F. Electrorefining of High-Purity Nickel from Cast Impure Ni Alloy and Ni Matte Anodes
Appendix G. Top Blown Rotary Converter
Appendix H. Nickel Carbonylation Free Energies and Equilibrium Constants
Index
Review quotes
Review quotes
— MEIBlog
"A team of specialists from various companies and universities trace the extraction and processing of the three metals from ore in the ground to high-purity metals and chemicals. Nickel, cobalt, and platinum-group metals often occur together, are extracted together, and have similar properties. The topics discussed include smelting laterite concentrates to sulfide matte, extracting nickel and cobalt from sulfide ores, the slow cooling and solidification of converter matte, extracting cobalt from nickel laterite and sulfide ores, and smelting and converting sulfide concentrates containing platinum-group metals."
— Reference and Research News, October 2012
Product details
Product details
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: September 23, 2011
- Language: English
About the authors
About the authors
FC
Frank K. Crundwell
Frank K. Crundwell is Director of Crundwell Metallurgy Limited, London, UK, CM Solutions (Pty) Ltd and is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has worked in research institutes, industrial refineries, academia and consultancies. He founded CM Solutions back in 2002, a sustainable laboratory and consultancy to the metallurgical industry. It develops flowsheets for a large variety of metals, such as copper, cobalt, gold platinum-group metals, nickel, and zinc, with a current focus on high purity products. Frank has more than 40 years’ experience in studying dissolution reactions, and more than 70 publications in the area. He has been awarded the Milton E. Wadsworth Award of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration for “innovative, rigorous contributions that have enhanced fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of oxidative and non-oxidative leaching of minerals including sulfides, oxides and silicates”. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (US) for this work.
He has contributed to and solved several debates in the field: (i) how bacteria interact with minerals, (ii) mechanisms of quartz and silica dissolution (iii) how impurities impact dissolution. In addition, he has contributed to the electrochemical theory of dissolution, extending it to apply to dissolution of semiconductors. He previously co-authored the Elsevier book Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals (2011) with Michael Moats, Venkoba Ramachandran, Timothy Robinson, and W. G. Davenport.
MM
Michael Moats
VR
Venkoba Ramachandran
TR
Timothy Robinson
WD
W. G. Davenport
Professor William George Davenport is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Royal School of Mines, London. Prior to his academic career he worked with the Linde Division of Union Carbide in Tonawanda, New York. He spent a combined 43 years of teaching at McGill University and the University of Arizona.
His Union Carbide days are recounted in the book Iron Blast Furnace, Analysis, Control and Optimization (English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish editions).
During the early years of his academic career he spent his summers working in many of Noranda Mines Company’s metallurgical plants, which led quickly to the book Extractive Metallurgy of Copper. This book has gone into five English language editions (with several printings) and Chinese, Farsi and Spanish language editions.
He also had the good fortune to work in Phelps Dodge’s Playas flash smelter soon after coming to the University of Arizona. This experience contributed to the book Flash Smelting, with two English language editions and a Russian language edition and eventually to the book Sulfuric Acid Manufacture (2006), 2nd edition 2013.
In 2013 co-authored Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals, which took him to all the continents except Antarctica.
He and four co-authors are just finishing up the book Rare Earths: Science, Technology, Production and Use, which has taken him around the United States, Canada and France, visiting rare earth mines, smelters, manufacturing plants, laboratories and recycling facilities.
Professor Davenport’s teaching has centered on ferrous and non-ferrous extractive metallurgy. He has visited (and continues to visit) about 10 metallurgical plants per year around the world to determine the relationships between theory and industrial practice. He has also taught plant design and economics throughout his career and has found this aspect of his work particularly rewarding. The delight of his life at the university has, however, always been academic advising of students on a one-on-one basis.
Professor Davenport is a Fellow (and life member) of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and a twenty-five year member of the (U.S.) Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. He is recipient of the CIM Alcan Award, the TMS Extractive Metallurgy Lecture Award, the AusIMM Sir George Fisher Award, the AIME Mineral Industry Education Award, the American Mining Hall of Fame Medal of Merit and the SME Milton E. Wadsworth award. In September 2014 he will be honored by the Conference of Metallurgists’ Bill Davenport Honorary Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia (his home town).