HPAL IN PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

摘要

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMM) has commissioned two HPAL projects in the Philippines. Both of the plants successfully produce Mixed Sulfide (MS) of nickel and cobalt from low grade lateritic ore and the annual production of nickel is 54,000 tons in the Philippines. Three Australian laterite projects were commissioned in late 1990's. Those projects suffered from low availability of the plant and low recovery of nickel in the ramp up stage. The first challenge of SMM was the Coral Bay Nickel Project which commenced in 2002. The project achieved the first track record to reach the name plate capacity. SMM proved operational reliability of HPAL by the CBNC project. However, we have never terminated our challenge to establish the most competitive HPAL plant in the world. The second challenge of SMM was the Taganito HPAL project, located on Mindanao Island, Philippines. As compared with the CBNC project, the project possesses disadvantages of "Wet Weather" and lower grade ore containing nickel at less than 1.1 %. The plant is designed to produce 30,000 tons of nickel and 2,600 tons of cobalt as MS. Construction of the THPAL plant commenced in 2010 and the plant was mechanically completed in June 2013. The plant has attained name plate capacity since May 2014 with excellent performance in terms of nickel recovery and plant availability. Following the success of the Taganito project, pilot studies have been conducted at CBNC and THPAL aiming at further advancement in the future. Those studies include recovery of chromite, hematite and scandium from the laterite ore. SMM believes those technologies are contributing to the development of lower grade lateritic nickel resources.