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As an important non-ferrous metal raw material, nickel is widely used in the manufacture of stainless steel, high nickel alloy steel, etc. In order to obtain high-grade nickel concentrate raw materials, the selection of its beneficiation process is particularly important. This article will introduce you to a common nickel ore beneficiation process. This nickel processing flow can be divided into three parts: crushing and screening operations, grinding and classification operations, and flotation separation operations.
Use the table of contents below to navigate through the guide:
The raw ore enters the jaw crusher through the feeder for coarse crushing. Then the coarsely crushed products enter the cone crusher for secondary crushing. The ore after medium crushing enters the vibrating screen for screening. The products under the sieve directly enter the grinding process. On the other hand, the material on the screen needs to enter the fine crushing process, and the cone crusher is generally selected for the fine crushing operation.
When processing nickel ore, stage grinding operations are generally employed. Therefore, the crushed products enter the ball mill for one-stage grinding, and then enter the spiral classifier for pre-classification. Because the particle size of nickel ore is too coarse (＞0.1mm) or too fine (＜ 0.006mm), it is unfavorable for the next flotation. Therefore, after the pre-classification, a hydrocyclone should be set up to control the classification of the pulp. The overflow part of the hydrocyclone is qualified ore particles, and the underflow is unqualified ore particles that need to enter the ball mill for re-grinding. In order to improve the grinding efficiency of the ball mill, a ball mill is generally installed after the hydrocyclone for re-grinding.
When flotation of nickel ore, in order to improve the utilization efficiency of materials and the grade of concentrate, it can generally be divided into the flotation operation of high-grade concentrate and the flotation operation of ordinary concentrate. The specific process flow is as follows:
In the separation of high-grade nickel ore concentrates, the flotation process of "one coarse and two fine" is generally used. The specific process is as follows: the qualified pulp after control and classification is pumped into the flotation machine through the slurry pump for a stage of roughing. The obtained rougher concentrate enters into the beneficiation process and undergoes two beneficiation flotations, and finally high-grade nickel concentrate can be obtained.
The tailings product after a roughing process also contains a certain amount of nickel ore concentrate. In order to improve the recovery efficiency of concentrate and the utilization efficiency of materials, it is necessary to re-sort the tailings. The specific process flow is as follows: the initial roughing tailings of nickel ore are first classified, and the underflow part enters the ball mill for second-stage grinding. The overflow part enters the flotation machine for roughing of tailings. For the flotation of ordinary concentrates, the process of "one coarse, three fines and two sweeps" is generally adopted. The first-stage roughing tailings products will enter the hydrocyclone together with the milled pulp for classification. The tailings roughing concentrate enters three beneficiation operations. The rest goes into two sweeping operations of the tailings. After three beneficiations, nickel ore concentrate can be obtained.
The above is the beneficiation process of nickel ore. It can be seen from the above that nickel ore mainly adopts the flotation process. Therefore, in the sorting process, it should be noted that the tailings obtained by each selection and sweeping need to be returned to the previous sorting operation for reprocessing to improve the material utilization rate.
In addition, there are many influencing factors during nickel ore flotation operation, such as air, pulp concentration, and pulp stirring effect. At the same time, the design of the flotation process and the selection of equipment also have a very important impact on the flotation effect. Therefore, when dealing with nickel ore, the specific beneficiation process design and equipment layout still need to be determined according to the nature of the ore.
Xinhai recommends the concentrator to conduct ore analysis tests before processing nickel ore. As the proposer and practitioner of the whole mining industry chain service, Xinhai can design the nickel ore beneficiation process and customize a complete set of beneficiation equipment for you. If necessary, welcome to consult Xinhai.
