Mineral ore slurry pretreatment method, and method for manufacturing mineral ore slurry

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018291478-A1
Application number	US-201615570861-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 8, 2016
Priority date	May 12, 2015
Publication date	Oct 11, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

There is provided a method capable of effectively reducing the amount of acid used in a leaching step and the amount of a neutralizer used in a final neutralization step while nickel yield in a hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore is not reduced. A method for pre-treating ore slurry according to the present invention is a method for pre-treating ore slurry to be provided to a leaching treatment in a hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore, the method including: a first separation step for separating ore slurry into a coarse particle fraction and a fine particle fraction; a second separation step for separating the coarse particle fraction separated in the first separation step into a heavy specific gravity fraction and a light specific gravity fraction; and a vibration sieving step for separating, by a vibration sieve, the light specific gravity fraction.

First claim

1 . A method for pre-treating ore slurry to be provided to a leaching treatment in a hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore, the method comprising:
a first separation step for separating ore slurry into a coarse particle fraction and a fine particle fraction using at least one of a hydrocyclone and a density separator at one to three stages and supplying the fine particle fraction to the leaching treatment; a second separation step for separating the coarse particle fraction separated in the first separation step into a heavy specific gravity fraction and a light specific gravity fraction using at least a spiral concentrator and supplying the heavy specific gravity fraction to the leaching treatment; and a vibration sieving step for separating, by a vibration sieve, the light specific gravity fraction separated in the second separation step into a fraction on the sieve and a fraction under the sieve and supplying the fraction under the sieve as ore slurry to the leaching treatment.

2 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 1 , wherein a mesh size of the vibration sieve is 300 μm or more.

3 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 1 , wherein
the coarse particle fraction to be separated in the first separation step is a coarse particle fraction in which particles having a particle diameter of less than 45 μm in the ore slurry are 35% by mass or less in a solid content.

4 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 1 , wherein the first separation step includes
a classification and separation step for supplying the ore slurry to the hydrocyclone and subjecting the ore slurry to classification and separation, and a specific gravity separation step for supplying an underflow classified by the hydrocyclone in the classification and separation step to the density separator and subjecting the underflow to specific gravity separation.

5 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 1 , wherein the hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore includes
an ore slurry formation step for forming slurry of the nickel oxide ore (ore slurry), a leaching step for carrying out a leaching treatment on the ore slurry under high temperature and high pressure by adding sulfuric acid, a solid-liquid separation step for separating a residue while the obtained leached slurry is washed in multiple stages, to obtain a leachate containing nickel and impurity elements, a neutralization step for separating a neutralized precipitate containing the impurity elements by adjusting a pH of the leachate to obtain a post-neutralization solution containing nickel, a sulfuration step for carrying out a sulfuration treatment on the post-neutralization solution to generate a sulfide containing nickel and a barren solution, and a final neutralization step for recovering and detoxifying the barren solution discharged in the sulfuration step.

6 . A method for manufacturing ore slurry to be provided to a leaching treatment in a hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore, the method comprising:
an ore slurry formation step for obtaining a coarse ore slurry from the nickel oxide ore; a first separation step for separating the coarse ore slurry into a coarse particle fraction and a fine particle fraction using at least one of a hydrocyclone and a density separator at one to three stages; a second separation step for separating the coarse particle fraction separated in the first separation step into a heavy specific gravity fraction and a light specific gravity fraction using at least a spiral concentrator; a vibration sieving step for separating, by a vibration sieve, the light specific gravity fraction separated in the second separation step into a fraction on the sieve and a fraction under the sieve; and an ore slurry condensation step for loading the ore slurry of the fine particle fraction separated in the first separation step, the ore slurry of the heavy specific gravity fraction separated in the second separation step, and the ore slurry of the fraction under the sieve separated in the vibration sieving step into a solid-liquid separation device and separating and removing moisture contained in the ore slurry to condense ore components.

7 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 2 , wherein
the coarse particle fraction to be separated in the first separation step is a coarse particle fraction in which particles having a particle diameter of less than 45 μm in the ore slurry are 35% by mass or less in a solid content.

8 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 2 , wherein the first separation step includes
a classification and separation step for supplying the ore slurry to the hydrocyclone and subjecting the ore slurry to classification and separation, and a specific gravity separation step for supplying an underflow classified by the hydrocyclone in the classification and separation step to the density separator and subjecting the underflow to specific gravity separation.

9 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 3 , wherein the first separation step includes
a classification and separation step for supplying the ore slurry to the hydrocyclone and subjecting the ore slurry to classification and separation, and a specific gravity separation step for supplying an underflow classified by the hydrocyclone in the classification and separation step to the density separator and subjecting the underflow to specific gravity separation.

10 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 7 , wherein the first separation step includes
a classification and separation step for supplying the ore slurry to the hydrocyclone and subjecting the ore slurry to classification and separation, and a specific gravity separation step for supplying an underflow classified by the hydrocyclone in the classification and separation step to the density separator and subjecting the underflow to specific gravity separation.

11 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 2 , wherein the hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore includes
an ore slurry formation step for forming slurry of the nickel oxide ore (ore slurry), a leaching step for carrying out a leaching treatment on the ore slurry under high temperature and high pressure by adding sulfuric acid, a solid-liquid separation step for separating a residue while the obtained leached slurry is washed in multiple stages, to obtain a leachate containing nickel and impurity elements, a neutralization step for separating a neutralized precipitate containing the impurity elements by adjusting a pH of the leachate to obtain a post-neutralization solution containing nickel, a sulfuration step for carrying out a sulfuration treatment on the post-neutralization solution to generate a sulfide containing nickel and a barren solution, and a final neutralization step for recovering and detoxifying the barren solution discharged in the sulfuration step.

12 . The method for pre-treating ore slurry according to claim 3 , wherein the hydrometallurgical process for nickel oxide ore includes
an ore slurry formation step for forming slurry of the nickel oxide ore (ore slurry), a leaching step for carrying out a leaching treatment on the ore slurry under high temperature and high pressure by adding sulfuric acid, a solid-liquid separation step for separating a residue while the obtained leached slurry is washed in multiple stages, to obtain a leachate containing nickel and impurity elements, a neutralization step for separating a neutralized precipitate containing the impurity elements by ad

Assignees

• Sumitomo Metal Mining Co

Inventors

• Higuchi Hirotaka
• Imamura Masaki

Classifications

• C22B23/0407

  Leaching processes · CPC title

• C22B23/005 Primary

  Preliminary treatment of ores, e.g. by roasting or by the Krupp-Renn process · CPC title

• C22B23/0415

  with acids or salt solutions except ammonium salts solutions · CPC title

• C22B23/043

  Sulfurated acids or salts thereof · CPC title

• C22B23/0453

  Treatment or purification of solutions, e.g. obtained by leaching (C22B23/0407 takes precedence) · CPC title