Processing Nickel Ore

& Cobalt Recovery

Total technology solutions across the mining & minerals value chain

TENOVA is a worldwide supplier of advanced technologies, products and engineering services for
the metals and mining & minerals industries.

PROCESSING NICKEL ORE

Tenova Mining & Minerals provides the full range of capabilities to convert run-of-mine (ROM) nickel ore to saleable
products, integrating engineering and process know-how in development and optimisation of plant designs for nickel ore
and cobalt recovery, which meet global environmental standards.

TRACK RECORD FOR NICKEL ORE PROCESSING AND COBALT RECOVERY

Plant references date back more than two decades. Major recent projects include a ferro-nickel smelter for Southern
Urals Nickel in Russia, cobalt SX / IX / EW circuits for Baja Minings El Boleo project in Mexico, and Freeport-McMohrans
Tenke project in the DRC, a cobalt recovery plant for Kasese in Uganda, a sulphuric acid facility for DMSAs Ambatovy
Nickel in Madagascar, a nickel concentrator for Allegiance Minings Avebury Nickel in Tasmania and pulsed columns for
Vale-Incos Goro Nickel in New Caledonia.

State-of-the-art engineering and EPCM services over the complete project lifecycle to convert natural resources into
marketable products.

Key supplier of equipment and systems for open pit mining and underground solutions, materials handling and mineral
processing to the global mining and general industries.

Differentiated, project specific hydrometallurgical, mineral and bio process technologies, complemented by turnkey
modular plant solutions.

Industry specialist in solid / liquid separation and mineral processing applications for the minerals, chemical and industrial
markets.

Leaders in high capacity furnaces and complete smelting plants for ferroalloy production, platinum group metals, base
metals, slag cleaning and alloy refining.

Tenova Mining & Minerals is a total integrated solutions provider to the global mining, bulk materials handling and
minerals beneficiation and processing sectors, offering innovative technological solutions and full process and
commodity knowledge across the mining & minerals industry value chain.

GENERIC MINING & MINERALS VALUE CHAIN SERVED BY TENOVA MINING & MINERALS

Mining

Open Cast
Mining and
Underground
Solutions,
Ore Handling

Extractive Metallurgy

Mineral Processing

o
Comminution, Separation, Classification, Concentrati

Crushing,
Screening,
Grinding,
Liberating

Drum, Spiral,
Cyclone,
Magnetic,
Electrostatic,
X-Ray

metallurgy
Hydro and/or Pyro

Leaching,
Solvent
Extraction,
Electrowinning,
Ion Exchange,
Carbon
Absorption,
Elution,
Precipitation

Flotation,
Filtration,
Sedimentation,
Jigging,
Drying

Calcining,
Roasting,
Smelting,
Converting,
Refining

Agglomeration

Product
Handling

Pelletizing,
Sintering

Product
Storage,
Handling,
Shipping

EPCM and project services, finance facilitation

andling equipment and systems

, materials h
Open cast mining and underground solutions

Comminution equipment, flotation and

ntration systems
gravity conce

ipme
Solid-liquid separation equ

nt and systems

urgical technologies and systems

Hydrometall

Modular plants

Furnaces and plant equipm

ent

After sales services and ancillary equipment a

nd systems

Note: Tenova Mining & Minerals provides the full suite of technologies and services for the treatment of waste and contaminated air and water.

PROJECT SERVICES
n Consulting: ore-body, production and market evaluation to assess project viability.
n Test work supervision: Tenova Mining & Minerals
engineers arrange and oversee laboratory, pilot plant
and on-site test work.
n In-house laboratory for cost-effective and prompt
scoping work, as a basis for structuring project
definitions.
n Pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
n Technology supply packages: incorporating basic
engineering design, process guarantees, proprietary
equipment definition and supply, and commissioning
support.
n Process plant design and project management: all
phases of the project, from inception through design
and construction to commissioning, maximising the
success and profitability of the venture.
n Comprehensive spares and after-sales back-up.
n Process audits to Best Practice guidelines.

PROJECT FINANCE
Tenova Mining & Minerals assists clients to structure,
negotiate and secure optimal and cost-effective financial
packages for projects of all sizes.

FLEXIBLE CONTRACT STRUCTURING

n Reimbursable, fixed price or any combination to suit
client needs.
n Joint ventures on projects.

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES
n For beneficiation of nickel ore and cobalt recovery,
Tenova Mining & Minerals evaluates equipment to
make unbiased selections of the best equipment for
the job.
n For stockpiling, materials handling, environmental
protection and waste disposal, Tenova Mining &
Minerals draws upon its comprehensive in-house
range of engineered technologies and selects the most
appropriate equipment from all suppliers.

ORE HANDLING AND PREPARATION

Materials Handling
Tenova Mining & Minerals designs and supplies materials
handling systems to transport nickel bearing ores and
tailings.
n Conveyor systems to move ore and tailings to, from
and within the processing plant.
n Stockpile systems for efficient, effective and
economic stacking, blending and reclaiming of ore
and safe disposal of tailings.
n Plants to process tailings and extract coarse material
for use as backfill.
Comminution
Tenova Mining & Minerals designs comminution systems
that take into account ore handling characteristics and
specific requirements of downstream metallurgical
processes.
n Crushing
All forms of crushing circuits including in-pit, primary,
secondary, tertiary and quaternary crushing systems.
n Grinding Circuits
Large autogenous grinding (AG) and semi-autogenous
grinding (SAG) circuits, as well as rod and ball milling.

Pre-concentration
Physical separation processes for use prior to flotation,
upgrade flotation feed making use of differences in
physical properties of ore and gangue minerals.
n Dense-Media Separation (DMS)
DMS is applied to nickel sulphide plants where
Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) or chromite are
present, or where nickel sulphide ore has significant
silicate nickel unrecoverable by flotation.
n Gravity Separation
Use of spirals to recover chromite concentrate from
PGM flotation feed and application of jigs to recover
metal from slag.
n Magnetic Separation
Use of magnetic separation to recover metal from
slag, and to concentrate PGM from slow-cooled
converter matte into a magnetic fraction.
n Screening of Laterites
Can be used in upgrading and beneficiation of laterite
nickel ores.

n Fine Grinding
Tower mills, stirred mills and ISA mills for flotation
concentrate re-grinding.
The technology has applications in nickel sulphide
leaching and sulphiding of laterite-generated
solutions.

FLOTATION AND DEWATERING

Flotation
During fotation, differences in surface chemistry allow for
selective recovery of valuable minerals.
n Flash Flotation
In grinding circuits, it may be advantageous to
incorporate flash flotation to remove coarsely
liberated minerals before they are overground and
prone to being lost in the downstream conventional
flotation units.
n Conventional Flotation
Design of banks of conventional flotation cells and
supply of proprietary cells, in addition to design and
installation services.
n Tank Cells
Tenova Mining & Minerals has completed several
installations of large tank cells in recent years.
n Column Cells
Column and Jameson cells, including pumping of high
air content froths associated with fine grinding of
concentrates.
n Reagent Plants
Packaged reagent plants, either as stand-alone or as
part of concentrator plants.

Dewatering
Tenova Mining & Minerals designs and supplies unit
processes to dewater flotation concentrate, recover leach
and dewater tailings streams, before transfer to the next
process.
n Thickeners
Conventional, high-rate, ultra-high rate and paste
thickeners to dewater concentrate, residue and
tailings streams.
n Vacuum Filters
Drum, disc and belt filters.
n Filter Presses
Recessed chamber and membrane presses to
generate concentrate cake for sale and even dry
tailings for storage in arid locations. They are also
widely used in base and precious metal refineries.
n Continuous Pressure Filters
Horizontal plate pressure
concentrators and refineries.

filters

for

both

NICKEL EXTRACTION HYDROMETALLURGY

Hydrometallurgical processes are often more favoured
than smelting for treatment of nickel ore and concentrate,
particularly nickel laterites.
Leaching
Tenova Mining & Minerals has wide experience of base
metal leaching processes and designs to process ore,
concentrate and smelter mattes.
n Heap Leach
Highly applicable to nickel laterites. Projects in low to
high elevation areas and in arid to tropical climates; from
interpretation and management of column testwork
programmes through to scale-up and construction.
n Tank Leach
Acid leach processes carried out in trains of agitated
tanks.

n Bio-Leach
Bacterial heap leach and tank leach plants, as well as
bio-leaching technologies that include processes
from BRGM, Mintek, Bactech and Biomin.
n Emerging Technologies
Novel, proprietary leach processes and applying
pressure leach to laterites, flotation concentrates and
other materials.
n By-Product Recovery
Gold, silver and PGMs.

n Pressure Leach (PAL or HPAL)

Strong autoclave design skills to develop high-grade
sulphide ore, concentrate and matte process routes.
Circuits include utilising brick-lined and titanium-clad
autoclaves operating up to 240 C and 47 bar pressure.

NICKEL EXTRACTION HYDROMETALLURGY

Residue and Impurity Removal
Removal of leach residues and dissolved impurities with
minimum loss of nickel is a critical step in
hydrometallurgical processes.
n Neutralisation and Iron Removal
Neutralisation of slurry or solution between leaching
and downstream purification, can be coupled with iron
removal.
n Residue Separation and Washing
Counter-current decantation (CCD), counter-current
vacuum belt filtration and filter presses.
n Solution Clarifying
Pinned-bed
clarifiers
or
conventional
thickeners/clarifiers to clarify leach solutions before
downstream nickel recovery.
n Precipitation and Cementation
Precipitation processes that minimise operating cost
and maximise metal recovery.

Acid Plants
Tenova Mining & Minerals has expertise in drying
installations and sulphuric acid plants; plus licence
agreements with Noram Engineering and Constructors,
Canada; the Sinopec Nanjing Engineering and
Constructors Incorporation (SNEI) based in China; and
Sulphurnet based in the Netherlands.

NICKEL AND COBALT SOLVENT EXTRACTION,

ION EXCHANGE AND ELECTROWINNING
Solvent Extraction (SX), Ion Exchange (IX) and
Electrowinning (EW) are processes of choice.
Solvent Extraction (SX)
n Bateman Pulsed Columns
High-efficiency, continuous contactor for extraction,
stripping and scrubbing. No degradation or loss of
organic solvent, low operational and maintenance
costs, minimal crud formation, small footprint and
reduced fire risk.
n BATEMAN SETTLER
Substantial operational benefits and enables side-byside orientation of pump mixers, reducing capital
costs and improving access for operators and
maintenance. A coalescence enhancement channel
and other design aspects provide higher process
efficiencies and reduced organic loss.

Ion Exchange (IX)

Through an exclusive agreement with Mintek, Tenova
Mining & Minerals has access to fixed bed, fluidised-bed
and novel resin-in-pulp (RIP) technologies.
n Removal of impurities from nickel refinery solution
streams.
n Removal of copper, zinc and nickel from cobalt
EW solutions.
n Environmental clean-up.
Electrowinning (EW)
Cellhouses from small heap leach manual operations to
large-scale, automated systems.
n Crossflow Electrolytic Cells
Improved catholyte distribution flow pattern around
each cathode. They can accommodate cathode or
anode bags and / or a close-capture aerosol / gas
emission system, providing a safe work environment,
important in nickel and cobalt EW circuits.
n Cellhouse Layout
Low-cost operating facilities for manual and automated
strip plants.
n Alternative Metal Production Processes
Nickel / cobalt hydrogen reduction circuits and peripherals, eg briquetting, sintering.

COBALT RECOVERY

NICKEL EXTRACTION PYROMETALLURGY

Tenova Mining & Minerals specialised expertise enables

production of high-quality cobalt metal.

Pyrometallurgical plants still process a high percentage of

non-ferrous metal ores and flotation concentrates, despite
the advent of new hydrometallurgical treatment routes.
Tenova Mining & Minerals has a number of references in
pyrometallurgical plants for PGM operations, where nickel
is often a by-product. This process could potentially apply
to a primary nickel process route.

Leach
Cobalt is often recovered into solution with copper and
nickel in the primary leach stage.
Purification by Precipitation
Cobalt solution streams can be purified by precipitation
before metal production.

10

Solvent Extraction
SX is often used to remove selected impurities and cobalt
itself from solution streams.

Smelting
Electric-arc furnace technology, as well as other
technologies such as flash smelting and top submerged
lance furnaces.
Tenova Mining & Minerals DC furnace technology is also
being increasingly applied in the ferronickel industry.

Ion Exchange
IX is used to remove critical impurities from cobalt EW
circuits.

Converting
Conventional Peirce-Smith converters, top-blown rotary
converters and top submerged lance furnaces.

Electrowinning
Tenova Mining & Minerals has specialised expertise in EW
of copper, which does not electro-plate easily. It can offer
divided and undivided cell technology.

Peripherals
Proprietary engineered systems.
n Belt, chain and pneumatic conveyors for furnace feed,
sluices, etc.
n Metal, matte and slag tapping and granulation.
n Off-gas scrubbing.
n Bag-houses.
n Electrostatic precipitators.
n Acid plants.

PROCESS MODELLING
Tenova Mining & Minerals utilises simulation programs for
front-end modelling of chemical and physical processes.
Steady-State Simulation
Limn, Metsim, Aspen and Pyrosim models for a range of
unit operations commonly used in base metal comminution,
flotation, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy operations.
JK-SimMet for examination of comminution circuits.
Dynamic Simulation
SysCAD models transient operating conditions, providing
upset analysis, surge verification and downstream
debottlenecking.
When interfaced with actual control hardware, it is a
timesaving control system for debugging and an excellent
training tool.
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
FEA and CFD are applied in design of furnace
components and for design of a wide range of other
process and mechanical equipment.
The response of structures to loads and flow characteristics
of fluids and gases is determined without the need to build
and test costly prototypes and to conduct lengthy field trials.
Engineering Design and Drafting
Proprietary and in-house developed software to develop
cost effective designs.
n 2D and 3D drafting to provide a balance of cost
effectiveness across the design office, fabrication
shops, construction site and operator training
requirement.
n 3D-modelling packages.

11

Tenova Mining & Minerals

58 Emerald Parkway Road
Greenstone Hill Ext 21 1609
PO Box 7737
Johannesburg 2000
South Africa
Phone +27 11 899 9111
Fax +27 11 899 2302
enquiries.TMM@tenova.com

www.tenova.com
TECHINT GROUP
12