Скачать или смотреть Direct Nickel EC Julian Malnic and CEO Russell Debney

The Direct Nickel (DNi) Process is a hydrometallurgical process for nickel laterite deposits. It is believed to be the only process capable of treating the full laterite profile, from limonitic to saprolitic ores in a single flowsheet. It is a tank leach process that operates at atmospheric pressure, or with the option of mild pressure, and treats the ore at relatively low temperatures. The leach process uses a special reagent package to liberate in 2-4 hours more than 95% of the nickel, cobalt and other metals into solution. The insoluble residue is neutralised and sent to a waste disposal facility. The solution is then sequentially processed to extract the individual metals. The metal solution processing produces:

A marketable mixed hydroxide (or oxide, or sulphide) product containing nickel and cobalt.

Co-products Fe2O3, Al2O3 and MgO.

A barren solution that is sent to the recycle circuit which recovers +95% of the reagent for reuse.

The high recovery of the reagent package is a unique feature in the DNi Process. Consequently, reagent consumption in the DNi Process is as low as 30kg/t of feed material compared to sulphuric acid leaching processes, which consume 300 to 1000kg/t.