An overview of the latest news from the world of nickel-cobalt laterites covering existing HPAL operations, HPAL projects, heap leaching, and process innovations.
Since it burst onto the world’s metallurgical scene in the late 1960s, copper SX/EW has gone from strength to strength and has seemingly blitzed all comers. But it does have some drawbacks, which opens up opportunities for possible options.
Feasibility studies are a vital part of the sometimes tortuous path leading from a resource discovery to a profitable operation. Yet they come in all shapes and sizes - cheap or expensive, good or bad, well thought out or “off the cuff”, valuable or valueless - and can be a firm project foundation or a fantasy.
The ability to use heap leaching, together with solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW) to go from ore to high grade metal at the mine-site, makes it particularly attractive to aspiring juniors.
Some new players have joined the list of hydromet processes for copper sulphide concentrates. A key driving force is increasing industry concerns in the transporting and smelting of concentrates with high impurity levels, especially arsenic.
The 21st annual ALTA conference opened by Conference Convenor, Alan Taylor, Managing Director, ALTA Metallurgical Services was held 21-28 May in Perth, Australia.
