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18/11/17
22:23
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Originally posted by Flippa01
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Hi McHale As to question if the question if Auz has the right ore body from Sconi or Flemington for commercial battery grade Nickel/Cobalt Sulphate this will be answered by the pilot plant under construction. If this was a known fact at the moment the pilot plant would not be required.
The question regarding Opex and Capex differences between Sconi and Flemington this will all depend on the drilling results to give definitive results of grades and what other metal impurities must be disposed of during processing and also type of laterite with all limonite or saphorolite or combination. This will determine if straight HPAL is required or they may be able to lower retention times thru clave and utilise atmospheric leach to do final leaching to save costs. This is how the Raventhorpe nickel project was built to operate.
In combination of both questions the Murrin and Ambatovy Nickel plants utilise after HPAL H2S precipitation to convert the laterite ore back to nickel sulphide to assist the way they process after SX for refining to extract metal via refining autoclaves using ammonia which gives a fertiliser by-product for commercial use. In reading Glencore material Murrin is looking into upgrade to also produce Nickel and Copper sulphates as well as final metal briquettes. Nickel West which mines nickel sulphide in WA is announced a $43Mln dollar Capex project to produce 100,000 T of nickel sulphates for battery markets as well as keeping up supply of Nickel and cobalt powder and briquettes to their current customers. They are lucky as they have already spent over the last 50yrs billions developing their current 3 mines, smelter in Kalgoorlie and refinery in Kwinana Perth.
Every laterite plant is different in how they refine after HPAL. Goro and Ravo do not SX they produce MHP concentrate which Ravo was going to send to Townsville Yabulu plant for final refining hence why BHP spent 1.4Bln upgrading to accept and Goro sends to Finland. Finland has largest nickel refineries in the world many producers only make a concentrate and send to Finland for final processing.
The low grade laterites not suitable are mainly the indonesian and philipino mines that produce low grade nickel for the Chinese rebar market. This use of nickel in rebar is what caused the massive spike in nickel price to US$52000T in 2007 as Chinese weren't stabilising foundations first (mainly building on swampy ground) and introduced pig nickel into iron reo bars for concreting to strengthen the foundations.
As to question on currencies I don't trade just watch what econ's say with predictions.
Hope this answers your queries, just woken up working in West Africa at the moment.
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"Hi McHale As to question if the question if Auz has the right ore body from Sconi or Flemington for commercial battery grade Nickel/Cobalt Sulphate this will be answered by the pilot plant under construction. If this was a known fact at the moment the pilot plant would not be required."
Hi and thanks for your input.
Don't you think before doing a pilot plant they would of test the ore directly there or in a lab? To check if indeed that's extractable?
As I understand the question if it is the right ore body has been answered. I'm not an expert but they have mentioned that the ore body is the same as CLQ (same rock?). Pilot plant is required to demonstrate the viability and acquire knowledge to get to the next step IMO.