Background of the invention

Conventional leaching processes for limonites have high acid consumption as most of the nickel and cobalt are associated with oxy-hydroxide ferric minerals. Those minerals are the most common form of nickel laterites, making heap leaching or atmospheric unviable alternatives. In order to reach nickel inside the oxy-hydroxides lattices, high iron dissolution is required thus resulting in high acid consumption. That dissolution also destroys the minerals, reducing stability of a possible heap. Until now, the only viable option was HPAL treatment of laterites, but that process is not very tolerant with low grade or non-upgradeable ores.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 is a flowchart of the process provided by the present invention.

Description of preferred embodiments

This invention, described at the figure 1 , brings a new alternative process for limonites. The process uses ferric sulphate equilibrium to reduce overall acid consumption and iron extraction by decomposing ferric sulphates at certain conditions. The ore lattice is still broken, as ferric iron is dissolved, but the readily- formed ferric sulphate is decomposed into oxide, regenerating acid that is used to attack other elements. The process is divided into three steps: (i) sulphating; (ii) selective pyrolysis and (iii) selective dissolution.

During the sulphating step, all sulphuric acid is added to the ore, without any drying stage. The natural ore moisture is used to help the sulphating process. A drying stage can be added but is not necessary. Said step is divided in two stages: (i) first step being sulphuric acid dosage and (ii) second stage being equilibrium displacement. The first stage, as the name states, simply doses the acid into the ore. At that first stage, the following reaction occurs with ferric iron.

Fe ₂ 0 ₃ + 6H ₂ S0 ₄ → 2Fe(HS0 ₄ ) ₃ + 3H ₂ 0 (1 )

The second stage of equilibrium displacement is required to displace the sulphating reaction towards the ferric sulphate product. Temperature is known to help that process. For that reason, the material is submitted to a thermal treatment between 50 and 400°C, preferably between 150 and 250°C. The following reaction describes the process.

2Fe(HS0 ₄ ) ₃ + Fe ₂ 0 ₃ → 2Fe ₂ (S0 ₄ ) ₃ + 3 H ₂ 0 (2)

The sulphuric acid that is dosed at second stage should be enough to break mineral lattices and expose target elements, like nickel and cobalt. Acid dosage is estimated between 10 and 600kg per ton of ore, preferably between 50 and 300 kg/t.

The second step is a selective pyrolysis. Temperature is once again used to decompose ferric sulphate into sulphur trioxide and hematite. Newly-formed S0 ₃ readily attacks other elements, as nickel. Temperature required at this stage is estimated between 400 and 1000°C, preferably between 500 and 700°C.

Fe ₂ (S0 ₄ ) ₃ → Fe ₂ 0 ₃ + 3S0 ₃

NiO + S0 ₃ → NiS0 ₄

The overall reaction is the following.

Fe ₂ (S0 ₄ ) ₃ + 3NiO→ Fe ₂ 0 ₃ + 3NiS0 ₄

After ferric sulphate is decomposed into hematite and target metals are extracted from the ore lattice, there is a third step is a selective dissolution that takes nickel, cobalt and the other elements into solution, making sure iron is kept as oxide. The dissolution step is done at between 15 and 100°C, preferably between 25 and 90°C at a pH range of 1 to 5, preferably between .5 and 4. The pulp is easily filtered, as most solids are oxides, not hydroxides.

The ore needs to be prepared to a size fraction below 2", preferably below 0.5 mm before taken into the process of the invention. The only reason for that is to avoid agitation issues during the dissolution step. The process of the invention is flexible enough to receive low grade ores, as all equipment needed is of low capital intensity and low operational costs. The PLS that is produced has almost no iron in solution, making any downstream choice extremely simple.

Example 01 Nickel laterite ore composition:

_ AI2Q3 CaO CoO Cr2Q3 CuO FeZQ3 MgO MnO NiO PF Si02 ZnO

2,37% 0,10% 0,04% 1,16% 0,08% 15,75% 4,09% 0,24% 0,79% 6,02% 69,34% 0,02%

It was crushed for 100% passing particles in the 0.5 mm mesh. A sample was dried for 02 hours at a temperature of 110° C and then 400 g of said ore were weighed.

Said sample was loaded into a metal reactor and 120 g of 98% sulfuric acid was slowly added under the effect of mechanical mixing to avoid agglomerates generation. The sulfated mass was transferred to a zirconium crucible and placed in a greenhouse following a heating curve of 100° C per hour until it reached 700°C.

After 02 hours of thermal pre-treatment, the mass is cooled and fed into a solution maintained in a pH between 2,5 and 4,0, Eh< 600mV, at a temperature between 85° C and 95°C for 03 hours. After that, the solution is filtered, the residue is washed and dried, and the elements of interest are analyzed. The extraction result is 71 ,8% of Cobalt, 84% of Nickel and 12,5% of Iron based on the original amount comprised on the lateritic ore.

Example 02

Nickel laterite ore composition:

AI2Q3 CaO CoO Cr2Q3 CuO Fe2Q3 MgO MnO NiO PF Si02 ZnO 1.18% 0,00% 0,25% 1,16% 0,00% 35,79% 0,55% 1,95% 0,82% 4,93% 53,33% 0,04%

By repeating the same procedures of Example 01 , the extraction result is 79,6% of Cobalt, 81 ,7% of Nickel and 6,4% of Iron based on the original amount comprised on the lateritic ore.

Example 03

Nickel laterite ore composition:

AI2Q3 CaO CoO Cr2Q3 CuO Fe2Q3 MgO MnO NiO PF SiQ2 ZnO

1 ,10% 0,00% 0,14% 3,00% 0,01% 40,91% 7,01% 1 ,05% 1 ,64% 9,77% 35,31% 0,06% It was crushed for 100% passing particles in the 0,5 mm mesh. A sample was dried for 02 hours at a temperature of 110° C and then 400 g of said ore were weighed.

Said sample was loaded into a metal reactor and 160 g of 98% sulfuric acid was slowly added under the effect of mechanical mixing to avoid agglomerates generation. The sulfated mass was transferred to a zirconium crucible and placed in a greenhouse following a heating curve of 100° C per hour until it reached 700°C.

After 04 hours of thermal pre-treatment, the mass is cooled and fed into a solution maintained in a pH between 1 ,8 and 3,0, Eh< 450mV, at a temperature between 85° C and 95°C for 03 hours. After that, the solution is filtered, the residue is washed and dried, and the elements of interest are analyzed, the extraction result is 92,8% of Cobalt, 87,8% of Nickel and 4,5% of Iron based on the original amount comprised on the lateritic ore.

UNIQUE FEATURES:

• Increased extraction of value metal, such as nickel and cobalt;

• Better deposit exploitation;

• Reduced acid consumption;

• Reduced consumption of neutralizing agent;

· Better settling properties of pulp;

• Reduced consumption of flocculants;

• No need for saprolite/limonite separation.