Dissolution kinetics of a lateritic nickel ore in sulphuric acid medium.docVIP

Acta Montanistica Slovaca Ro?ník 17 (2012), ?íslo 1, 33-41 Dissolution kinetics of a lateritic nickel ore in sulphuric acid medium Tevfik Agacayak and Veysel Zedef 1 The dissolution kinetics of a lateritic nickel ore in the sulphuric acid solution were investigated. The shrinking core model was applied to the results of experiments. The effects of stirring speed (100–600 rpm), H SO4 concentration (0.1–2 mol l ), leaching -1 2 temperature (40-96 °C) and the particle size of the ore were studied on the nickel dissolution rate. The correlation coefficients for each different parameters were calculated. The results indicated that the dissolution rate of Ni is controlled by diffusion. The activation -1 ?1 energy (Ea) for the dissolution reaction was determined to be 68.66 kJ mol . The Arrhenius constant was calculated to be 8.2578 s . The order of reaction for the H SO concentration and the particle size were also obtained. It was found that the stirring speed had 2 4 no effect on the rate of nickel dissolution. Key words: Nickel, leaching, dissolution kinetics, sulphuric acid, diffusion Introduction Nickel is a transition element and one of the demanded metal in the industry. Lateritic type nickel deposits are one of the significant sources of nickel and cobalt elements, but generally nickel is dominant [1]. Lateritic ores are widely distributed in the equatorial regions [2-3]. Oxidic nickel ores are products of weathered ultramafic rocks [4]. Lateritic ores can be classified into three main groups: I. II. III. Hydrous silicate deposits: The Ni ore is found in the saprolite zone. Clay silicate deposits: Ni is concentrated in smectite clays within the saprolite. Oxide deposits: Ni is mostly associated with goethite [5-6]. The production of nickel fr