Effect of microwave pre-treatment on ultramafic nickel ore slurry rheology

• Ultramafic nickel ores pre-treated with microwave radiation.
• Slurry viscosity and yield stress reduced by microwave pre-treatment.
• Reduction in viscosity and yield stress attributed to conversion of serpentine to olivine.

Low-grade ultramafic nickel ores, while representing a large potential nickel resource, are difficult to process due to their high serpentine content. Serpentine is anisotropic and the mineral particles tend to be non-spherical, resulting in challenging slurry rheology. In general, suspensions of serpentine minerals have high viscosity and yield stress, which can be detrimental in comminution and flotation operations. It is proposed that ultramafic nickel ores be treated with microwave radiation prior to grinding in order to reduce slurry viscosity and yield stress. The rheology of two different ultramafic nickel ores, before and after microwave pre-treatment, was characterized in this work. Serpentine minerals were found to dominate the rheology of the untreated ultramafic nickel ores, with the ore containing minor chrysotile exhibiting higher viscosity and yield stress than the ore containing strictly lizardite serpentine. Microwave pre-treatment was found to greatly reduce the shear viscosity (average 80% reduction at 200 s−1) and direct yield stress (peak yield stress reduced by 92–93%) of ultramafic nickel ore slurries. The reduction in slurry viscosity and yield stress of the ore slurries as a result of microwave pre-treatment was attributed to the conversion of serpentine to olivine.