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Additives in Selective Reduction of Lateritic Nickel Ores: Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Carbonate, and Sodium Chloride

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Abstract

In this work, the selective reduction of lateritic nickel ore was carried out using sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, and sodium chloride as additives. The 5 wt% of anthracite coal, which contains 60.35% of fixed carbon and 1.9% of sulfur, was used as a reductant. All raw materials were mixed homogenously prior to the pelletization process into 10–15 mm of diameter. The reduction process was carried out to 50 g of pellets at 950 °C, 1050 °C, and 1150 °C for 60 min in a muffle furnace at atmospheric pressure. It continued with a wet magnetic separation process to separate ferronickel (concentrates) and impurities (tailings). Iron and nickel grade analysis was performed using XRF, while phase transformation and microstructure were analyzed with XRD and SEM–EDS. The results showed that the sodium sulfate was superior, resulting in the highest nickel grade in concentrate, i.e., 15.06%. The sulfidation mechanism, which could inhibit the metallization of iron, effectively increased the nickel grade in concentrate than decomposition of carbonate and chloridization process. The sulfur content in the reductant also influenced the selective reduction process. It promotes more sulfidation of iron, thus increasing the nickel grade in concentrate.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology/National Research and Innovation Agency for funding this research, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering Department, University of Indonesia, for microstructure analysis testing laboratory, and LIPI’s science services for research laboratories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metallurgy and Materials Engineering Department, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

    B. Suharno & C. Ramadini

  2. Research Unit for Mineral Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Lampung, Indonesia

    F. Nurjaman

  3. Office of Public Works and Spatial Planning, Rembang Local Government, Rembang, Indonesia

    A. Shofi

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  1. B. Suharno
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Contributions

Conceptualization: B.S. and F.N.; experiment: C.R and F.N.; funding acquisition: F.N. and A.S.; writing—original draft: C.R; writing—review and editing: B.S. and F.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to B. Suharno.

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Suharno, B., Nurjaman, F., Ramadini, C. et al. Additives in Selective Reduction of Lateritic Nickel Ores: Sodium Sulfate, Sodium Carbonate, and Sodium Chloride. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 38, 2145–2159 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-021-00456-1

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