Description

There are two kinds of Nickel-copper sulfide ore: Copper-nickel sulfide ore and Nickel oxide ore. Beneficiation and processing methods between the two are completely different.

For the Copper-nickel sulfide ores, the main beneficiation method is flotation. The magnetic separation and re-election is usually secondary dressing method. Flotation of sulfide copper-nickel ore, it is often uses copper sulfide flotation collector objects and foaming agents. A basic principle of flotation process to determine is rather that of copper into the nickel concentrates to avoid that of nickel into the copper concentrate. Because nickel in copper concentrate may be large losses in the smelting process, and copper in nickel concentrate can be more complete recovery. There are the following four basic processes of Copper-nickel ore flotation.

1. Directly use selective flotation or partly use selective flotation. When copper in the ore is much higher than the nickel content, can use this process, that select into a separate copper concentrate. The process has the advantage that direct access to the lower copper concentrate containing nickel

2. Bulk flotation process: to process the ore that contain lower copper than nickel, and mixed copper-nickel concentrate will be smelted into a high grade nickel matte.

3. Mixed-selective flotation process: From the bulk flotation of copper ore nickel, and then carve selected from mixed concentrates containing low nickel copper concentrate and copper in the nickel concentrate. The nickel concentrate by the smelter into high-nickel matte, then nickel matte to conduct high-flotation separation.

4. Mixed-selective flotation and to recycle part of the nickel for the tailings: When the various nickel ore floatability of minerals are very different, the copper-nickel bulk flotation, and then further recovered from the tailings poor floatability of nickel minerals.

Copper is harmful impurities of nickel smelting, and in the copper-nickel ore coppergrade has industrial recycling values. Therefore, separation of copper-nickel is an important issue in copper-nickel ore dressing technology . Copper-nickel separation can be divided into separation of mixed copper-nickel concentrate and nickel matte separation process. The former is for ore that coarser copper and nickel mineral and less close relationship to each other disseminated, the latter is used for copper and nickel mineral particle size that is very small and compact with each other disseminated ore.