Enrichment of Ni and Fe from nickel laterite by calcination,hydrogen reduction and magnetic separation

Basic characteristics of Indonesia laterite nickel ore were systematically studied in this paper. It is found that the nickel laterite mainly consists of lizardite and enstatine. Most of Mg located in lizardite is replaced by Ni in isomorphism. A series of experiments were performed to investigate Ni and Fe enrichment from the nickel laterite by calcination, hydrogen reduction and magnetic separation. The results show that the release of Ni and Fe oxides is achieved by calcination of nickel laterite and carbonate addictive. When the calcinate is reduced by hydrogen, Ni and Fe elements are found in metallic form in reduction products, and the metallization rate of Fe is more than 80~, which is much higher than that of the raw nickel laterite ore (from 4% to 8%). As the temperature rises, Ni is easy to bond with Fe in the form of Fe-Ni. The mass fractions of Ni and TFe in magnetic separation products reach 3% and 20%, and the yielding rates of Fe and Ni reach 80% and 90%, respectively, meaning that preliminary extraction of Fe and Ni is achieved.