An increasing amount of nickel is currently being extracted from the nickeliferous laterite ores, rather than from the sulfide deposits. Consequently, new processes are being developed to extract the nickel from these ores and selective reduction is one possibility. In these processes, it has been shown that the addition of sulfur can improve the grade and/or the recovery. In the current work, the mechanism of the carbothermic reduction of a sulfur-containing nickeliferous limonitic laterite ore was investigated by utilising TGA/DTA and both thermodynamic and kinetic analyses. It was found that, in addition to dehydroxylation and reduction, the reaction sequence also consisted of the following major stages: (1) conversion of pyrite to pyrrohtite and (2) subsequent desulfurisation. Analyses of the reacted samples showed that both the particle size and the amount of ferronickel increased with both particle growth temperature and retention time at temperature. The thermodynamic predictions were in general agreement with the experimental findings and were consistent with the postulated formation of an iron-sulfur-oxygen solution.

The recovery of nickel from the sulphide deposits is becoming more expensive and thus increasing attention is being paid to the nickeliferous laterite ores. One option being considered for the extraction of nickel would be the production of a concentrate by reduction and magnetic separation of the ferronickel alloy. The utilization of methane as a reducing agent offers some environmental benefits when compared to carbon. In this paper, thermodynamic modelling has been used to investigate the pyrometallurgical reduction of a saprolitic laterite ore by methane. The effects of methane additions, temperature, and ore composition on the nickel grade and nickel recovery were determined. It was found that nickel recoveries of 90% could be achieved at about 1000 degrees C with nickel grades of about 60%. The majority of the reduction was due to the carbon in the methane.

The recovery of nickel from the oxidic nickeliferous laterite ores is receiving increasing attention due to the difficulty of recovering this metal from the sulphide ore deposits. One possible solution is to selectively reduce the nickel oxide in the ore, which could then be upgraded by, for example, magnetic concentration. In this article, a thermodynamic study was performed on the reduction of a limonitic laterite ore by methane. Methane was selected as the reducing agent as it has a lower environmental impact than carbon due to the reduced carbon dioxide emissions. The effects of temperatures and methane additions on the nickel recovery and nickel grade were investigated. High recoveries of over 95 % were predicted, but the grades were limited to about 2.5 % due to the formation of magnetite. The thermodynamic simulations for reduction by methane were in agreement with the experimental results in the literature for other reducing agents, reflecting the fact that the nickel oxide in the limonitic ore is relatively unstable. Thus, high recoveries could be achieved irrespective of the reducing agent involved.