Nickel ore flotation process overview

Nickel ore is mainly divided into copper-nickel sulfide ore and nickel oxide ore. The beneficiation method used by Xinhai to deal with copper-nickel sulfide ore is mainly flotation, while magnetic separation and gravity separation are usually auxiliary beneficiation methods.

Mixed flotation process

It is used for sorting ores with lower copper content than nickel, and the resulting copper-nickel mixed concentrate is directly smelted into high nickel matte.

Mixed-optimized flotation process

Mix and flotation copper and nickel from the ore, and then separate low-nickel-containing copper concentrate and copper-containing nickel concentrate from the mixed concentrate. After the nickel concentrate is smelted, high nickel matte is obtained, and then the high nickel matte is separated by flotation.

Blending – preferential flotation and partial nickel recovery from blended flotation tailings

When the floatability of various nickel minerals in the ore is very different, after copper-nickel mixed flotation, the nickel-containing minerals with poor floatability are further recovered from the tailings.

Copper-nickel ore flotation process

Collectors and foaming agents for flotation of copper sulfide minerals are often used in flotation of copper-nickel sulfide ores. A basic principle of determining the flotation process is to rather make copper enter the nickel concentrate, and avoid nickel entering the copper concentrate as much as possible.

Because the nickel in the copper concentrate is lost in the smelting process, and the copper in the nickel concentrate can be recovered completely. When the ore contains much more copper than nickel, the copper can be separated into a separate concentrate. The advantage of this process is that copper concentrate with low nickel content can be obtained directly.