PROCESS FOR THE PRETREATMENT OF METAL BEARING ORES CONTAINING A METAL VALUE SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF NICKEL COBALT COPPER AND MANGANESE VALUES FROM THEDESIRED METAL BEARING SOURCE

摘要

In the hydrometallurgical recovery of metal values from ores and the like in which a metal bearing source is reduced in the presence of at least one additive at temperatures ranging from about 500 DEG to about 900 DEG C. and thereafter extracted, the improvement of said process comprises pretreating a portion of process tails from a preceding run with the additive prior to the reducing roast. The additive which is used to pretreat the minor portion of the feed stock may comprise that which is recovered from the roaster offgas and admixed with a portion of the tail stream from the extraction step.