Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

This paper compared and analyzed the technical characteristics of various nickel refining processes adopted by domestic and foreign nickel smelting enterprises, and briefly summarized the development of Jinchuan nickel refining technology and the major key technologies that had made breakthroughs and the key technical problems existing in Jinchuan nickel refining process. The results showed that the transformation from traditional nickel sulfide soluble anode electrolytic refining process to sulfuric acid leaching extraction separation electrowinning method or concentrated crystallization method, chlorination leaching extraction purification electrowinning method and carbonyl refining method was the mainstream direction of nickel refining technology improvement. Among them, the carbonyl refining method which had the advantages of the highest selectivity, the shortest process flow, the easiest to realize automation, the most environmental feature, significant energy saving and consumption reduction, and the key technologies had been broken through, was the most priority direction of nickel refining process improvement in large nickel refining enterprises.