Acid Leach Process

The high temperature (~250ºC) acid pressure leaching of nickeliferous laterite ore has been practised commercially since the late 1950's. The acid pressure leach solution is treated using hydrogen sulphide to produce a high grade sulphide containing at least 50% nickel. This mixed sulphide is then pressure leached to give a high purity concentrated nickel-cobalt solution, suitable for solvent extraction to separate the valuable metals. The nickel and cobalt are separately reduced to metal products.

The flow-sheet below shows the unit operations used in the process. Additional information about the autoclave is available.

Flow-Sheet: You can read about Dynatec's Acid Matte Leach Process. Description: Also available is a description of Dynatec Metallurgical Technologies. In addition, information about nickel and cobalt online, including background and end uses.

Click here to go back to the Acid-Leach process page