http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/
The company behind a new method of extracting ore from nickel laterite deposits expects the process to revolutionise the nickel industry.
Direct Nickel, the company responsible for inventing the new processing method, believes it will cut production costs in half. Nickel latertite is used to strengthen metals such as stainless steel.
Due to its lower grade and its distribution across large areas, it is traditionally quite expensive to extract. Almost three-quarters of the world’s nickel deposits are nickel sulphide and up to a third of those are based in Australia.
Conventional extraction uses sulphuric acid in the treatment plant, however Direct Nickel’s technology uses the lower cost and, the company claims, a more environmentally friendly Nitric acid instead.
Technical director Graham Brock says it’s breakthrough technology. He says treatment plants are expected to cost around half that of current HPAL processors and treatment costs would be around $2 to $3 a pound. “[That’s] probably about half or less the capital and about half the operating costs,” he said.
“So we see this very much as breakthrough technology that will in fact change the way nickel laterites are treated.”
But it’s not just companies in Australia interested in the technology.
China and Indonesia (which is currently in the midst of a nickel laterite export ban) are both keen to see the technology in action.
Direct Nickel has entered into a joint-venture with the Indonesian Government’s nickel mining company PT Antam.
Mr Brock says the technology has the capacity to become mainstream, although he says comparatively higher power costs in Australia may slow the development of the new processing approach in the domestic market.
For the original source of this article and a radio interview, click here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/wach-new-nickel/5819464