Nickel and cobalt precipitation from sulphate leach liquor using MgO pulp as neutralizing agent

The research work presented in this paper determined the conditions at which nickel and cobalt can be recovered, as easily filterable precipitates, from leach liquors, which are produced by sulphuric acid leaching of nickel oxide ores, at atmospheric pressure. More specifically, nickel and cobalt were precipitated as hydroxides at pH = 9, using MgO pulp as a neutralizing agent, by 99.9% and 99.0%, respectively. At this pH value, manganese, which was contained in the leach liquor, was precipitated having a concentration of about 3% in the final mixed precipitate. Statistical design and analysis of experiments were used in order to determine the main effects and interactions of the precipitation factors, which were the pH at equilibrium and the addition of seed material. The characterization of the produced mixed precipitate was carried out by X-ray diffraction, TG–DTA, scanning electron and optical microscopy and particle size distribution analyzer. The main mineralogical phases in the precipitate were theophrastite (Ni(OH)2) and brucite (Mg(OH)2). The microscopic observation revealed that the presence of brucite was, mainly, due to the un-reacted MgO pulp, during the precipitation process. This brucite content acted as seed material for nickel precipitation.