Preliminary Investigation into Flash Smelting of Ferronickel Produced from the Two-Stage Thermal Upgrading of Ultramafic Ni Concentrate

The two-stage thermal upgradingThermal upgrading process was developed to extract Ni in the form of ferronickelFerronickel (FeNi) concentrate from low-grade ultramaficUltramafic Ni concentrates without the need to smelt it at higher temperatures. This study explores the use of the FeNi concentrate as additional feed in a flash smeltingFlash smelting operation. Conventional flash furnace concentrate was blended with the FeNi concentrate to form a composite powder containing 10, 20, and 30% FeNi concentrate where the matteMatte generated under inert conditions were compared to the theoretical values to assess the methodology used. The flash furnace concentrate (0% FeNi), ferronickelFerronickel concentrate (100% FeNi) and 10% FeNi material were oxidized with a 3-, 7-, and 10-s oxygen blow to determine the resulting matteMatte composition under highly oxidizing conditions.