Method for producing nickel sulfide and hydrometallurgical method for nickel oxide ore

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10017835-B2
Application number	US-201515554869-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2015
Priority date	Mar 5, 2015
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

Provided is a method for producing nickel sulfide from an acidic sulfuric acid solution containing nickel, which is capable of suppressing particle diameters of nickel sulfide obtained thereby. The present invention is a method for producing nickel sulfide by causing a sulfurization reaction by blowing a hydrogen sulfide gas into an acidic sulfuric acid solution containing nickel, wherein: nickel sulfide having particle diameters of 5-20 μm and serving as seed crystals is added into an acidic sulfuric acid solution having a nickel concentration of 0.5-5.0 g/L in an amount of 40-500% by mass relative to the amount of nickel contained in the acidic sulfuric acid solution; and a hydrogen sulfide gas is blown into the acidic sulfuric acid solution, into which the seed crystals have been added, while setting the amount of the hydrogen sulfide gas blown in to be within the range of 0.30-0.85 Nm 3 /kg-Ni.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing nickel sulfide, the method comprising obtaining nickel sulfide by blowing hydrogen sulfide gas into an acidic solution of sulfuric acid containing nickel to cause a sulfidization reaction, wherein
nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 10 to 60 μm is recovered by
using a plurality of sulfidization reaction tanks,
adding nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 5 to 20 μm as a seed crystal to the acidic solution of sulfuric acid having a nickel concentration of from 0.5 to 5.0 g/L in an amount to be at a proportion of from 40 to 500% by mass with respect to an amount of nickel contained in the acidic solution of sulfuric acid

in a first sulfidization reaction tank for initially causing a sulfidization reaction, and
adjusting a blow quantity of hydrogen sulfide gas to be blown into the first sulfidization reaction tank to from 0.33 to 0.82 Nm 3 /kg-Ni.

2. The method for producing nickel sulfide according to claim 1 , wherein
nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 15 to 55 μm is recovered by
adding nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 5 to 20 μm as the seed crystal at a proportion of from 100 to 150% by mass with respect to an amount of nickel contained in the acidic solution of sulfuric acid containing nickel in the first sulfidization reaction tank and
adjusting a blow quantity of hydrogen sulfide gas to be blown into the first sulfidization reaction tank to from 0.33 to 0.82 Nm 3 /kg-Ni.

3. The method for producing nickel sulfide according to claim 1 , wherein nickel sulfide obtained by the sulfidization reaction is repeatedly used as nickel sulfide to be added as the seed crystal.

4. The method for producing nickel sulfide according to claim 1 , wherein the acidic solution of sulfuric acid containing nickel is a leachate obtained by subjecting nickel oxide ore to a leaching treatment using sulfuric acid in a hydrometallurgical method for nickel oxide ore.

5. A hydrometallurgical method for nickel oxide ore to leach out nickel from nickel oxide ore by using sulfuric acid and to generate a sulfide containing nickel from the leachate obtained, the method comprising:
a sulfidization step of recovering nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 10 to 60 μm by using a plurality of sulfidization reaction tanks, adding nickel sulfide having a particle diameter of from 5 to 20 μm as a seed crystal to a leachate having a nickel concentration of from 0.5 to 5.0 g/L in an amount to be at a proportion of from 40 to 500% by mass with respect to an amount of nickel contained in the leachate in a first sulfidization reaction tank for initially causing a sulfidization reaction, and
adjusting a blow quantity of hydrogen sulfide gas to be blown into the first sulfidization reaction tank to from 0.33 to 0.82 Nm 3 /kg-Ni.

Assignees

• Sumitomo Metal Mining Co

Inventors

• Nakamura Shinichiro
• Nakai Osamu
• Mitsui Hiroyuki
• Shibayama Keisuke

Classifications

• C01G53/11

  Sulfides; Oxysulfides · CPC title

• C01P2004/61

  Micrometer sized, i.e. from 1-100 micrometer · CPC title

• C22B3/44 Primary

  by chemical processes (treatment or purification of solutions by liquid-liquid extraction C22B3/26, by ion-exchange extraction C22B3/42) · CPC title

• C22B23/0461

  by chemical methods · CPC title

• C22B23/043

  Sulfurated acids or salts thereof · CPC title