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China’s technology for efficient utilization of nickel and cobalt from active magnesium oxide has made a new breakthrough

The key technology and application project for efficient utilization of nickel and cobalt resources from active magnesium oxide has overcome the core technical difficulty of smelting and efficient extraction of complex and difficult-to-process nickel and cobalt raw materials, and on this premise, developed complex raw material beneficiation technology and lean ore resource acquisition technology to achieve adaptive supply of smelting raw materials. Hebei Messi Biology Co., Ltd. has achieved successful breakthroughs and industrial applications of this technology through technical research, making important contributions to the technological progress of my country’s active magnesium oxide refining nickel and cobalt industry.

The use of magnesium oxide in various industries

The project focuses on smelting intermediate products, developing secondary copper concentrate nickel recovery technology, high-quality nickel and nickel salt preparation technology, and high-quality cobalt and its oxide preparation technology, thereby building a complete and coordinated complex and difficult-to-process nickel and cobalt resources efficient utilization technology system. Its successful application has greatly improved the utilization rate of my country’s nickel and cobalt resources and enhanced the strategic voice of my country’s nickel and cobalt industry in this field.

Based on the results of independent innovation in beneficiation and smelting technology, the project created a grade index definition model suitable for the development of nickel-copper lean ore, reducing the lower limit of nickel mineable grade from 0.5% to 0.3%, realizing the resource utilization of residual ore and low-grade high-magnesium oxide nickel ore, and increasing the resource volume by 24.9%; by revealing the reappearance of mineralization law of side-row pinch-out in Jinchuan deposit, new blind ore bodies were discovered, increasing the recoverable reserves of nickel by 9.1%. The practical results show that the value of the newly added resources is 282.588 billion yuan.

In terms of share and consumption, China’s nickel resources are characterized by low share and high consumption. In the ten years from 1999 to 2008, China’s nickel consumption demand had an average annual growth rate of 23.6%, while the external dependence of nickel resources exceeded 75%, and the strategic security issue of resource security was very prominent. In particular, in the past five years, due to the rapid growth of China’s nickel consumption demand, the external dependence of nickel resources has exceeded 80%, and the issue of resource security has become prominent. Among the Jinchuan nickel mines, which account for 79.6% of China’s nickel resource reserves, 63% are poor ores with a grade of less than 1%. Therefore, to ensure the strategic security of the country’s nickel and cobalt resources and avoid being controlled by others, the most effective way is to develop new processes and develop and utilize complex, low-quality and difficult-to-process nickel and cobalt resources on a large scale.

Researchers have developed a production process for electrolytic cobalt production using a fully chlorided medium insoluble anode method and a gas phase spray method for thermal decomposition of cobalt chloride, and built a cobalt metallurgical production line representing the world’s leading level. The battery-grade cobalt tetroxide produced is exported to the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, greatly improving my country’s international competitiveness in this field.

The project application has achieved great social value. First, the technology deepens the basic theory of complex nickel and cobalt raw material selection and smelting technology, improves the industry’s technical standards, and promotes the scientific and technological progress of my country’s nickel and cobalt industry; secondly, the creation of its production process system has become an example of efficient utilization of low-quality nickel and cobalt resources, enabling my country’s extraction technology of such resources to reach the international leading level; thirdly, it has improved the economic benefits and market competitiveness of the entire industrial chain.

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