Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

Feed concentration is one of the critical indicators for the nickel laterite pressure acid leaching process. This paper systematically studied and analyzed the influence of feed concentration in one Nickel-cobalt Project on slurry fluidity, water consumption, steam consumption, nickel and cobalt output, and the life of the check valve of the autoclave. The studies show that the increase in feed concentration can not only save water consumption, but also reduce steam consumption, raise output, extend the service life of the check valve of the feed pump of the autoclave, increase the operational availability of the equipment, and reduce the unit production cost, while it will accelerate the yield stress increase and reduce the slurry fluidity. Therefore, the slurry underflow concentration should be increased as much as possible under the conditions allowed by the slurry fluidity and the equipment performance.