Date:
Monday, March 15, 2021
Sponsored by:
The Metallurgy & Materials Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, TMS Extraction and Processing Division, TMS Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee, TMS Pyrometallurgy Committee
Organizers:
Corby Anderson, Colorado School of Mines; Dean Gregurek, RHI Magnesita; Mari Lundström, Aalto University; Christina Meskers; Prabhat Tripathy, Batelle Energy Alliance (Idaho National Laboratory); Fiseha Tesfaye, Abo Akademi University; Yuanbo Zhang, Central South University; Sari Muinonen, Glencore; Graeme Goodall, XPS- Glencore; Shijie Wang, Rio Tinto Kennecott Utah Copper Corp (Retired)
The 5th International Symposium on Nickel and Cobalt (Ni-Co 2021), co-located with TMS2021, will feature a plenary session of five invited speakers. Join us on Monday, March 15, to hear from these experts in the field. Learn more about programming plans for Ni-Co 2021.
Featured Speakers
Rodney Jones, Mintek
Presentation Title: "Extraction & Processing Division Distinguished Lecture: Ferronickel - Thermodynamics, Chemistry, and Economics"
About the Presentation
Ferronickel is used for producing stainless steel and other ferrous alloys. Therefore, the smelting of nickel lateritic ore to produce ferronickel is of great importance to the stainless steel industry. A novel simple thermodynamic model allows one to map the relationships between the Fe:Ni ratio in the ore and the FeNi grade and Ni recovery. The chemical composition of the lateritic feed material, especially the SiO2/MgO ratio, strongly affects the composition of the slag, and how the furnace is operated. The choice of the FeNi product grade is affected primarily by economic and marketing considerations. A blend of thermodynamics, chemistry, furnace design and behavior, and economics allows good choices to be made around a particular project. The talk will also touch on a little of the history of laterite smelting and will provide a brief overview of world FeNi production.
About the Presenter
Rodney Jones is a chemical engineer and metallurgist with over 35 years of pyrometallurgical experience in a wide variety of processes that have been taken from concept to industrial implementation. He worked as a senior technical specialist in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek. He holds a B.Sc. (Eng) degree in chemical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, a B.A. degree in logic and philosophy from the University of South Africa, and M.Sc. (Eng) and Ph.D. degrees in metallurgical engineering from Wits University. He is a registered Professional Engineer, a Past President and Honorary Life Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers (SAIChE), and the South African Academy of Engineering (SAAE). He is an honorary adjunct professor in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand and has previously held visiting positions in the USA and Australia. He is the author of Pyrosim software, used in 22 countries around the world, for the steady-state simulation of pyrometallurgical processes. Jones has also been part of the team that developed processes for the large-scale industrial application of direct-current arc furnace technology to the smelting of chromite in South Africa and Kazakhstan, ilmenite smelting in South Africa, cobalt recovery from slags in Zambia, battery recycling in Switzerland, ferronickel production in New Caledonia, and recovery of platinum from chromium-containing ores and wastes. The South African National Research Foundation rated him in 2009 and 2015 as an Internationally Acclaimed Researcher. Jones is also a member of the board of trustees for OneMine.org and serves as the chair of the International Committee on Ferro-Alloys (ICFA).
Phillip Mackey, Worley
Presentation Title: "Around the Nickel World in Eighty Days: A Virtual Tour of World Nickel Sulphide and Laterite Operations and Technologies"
About the Presentation
The world production of nickel of 2.38 million tonnes in 2019 ranks fifth in non-ferrous metals after aluminum, copper, zinc, and lead. Nickel is produced from both sulphide ores and oxide ores from many countries, with nickel now a vital component in batteries for powering the new electric transportation age. This paper takes the reader on a virtual world nickel tour of sulphide and laterite plants with a focus on smelter facilities. Operations and technology employed at each plant visited on the virtual tour are discussed including a brief historical sketch. Future technology trends identified during the world tour are also discussed. Sufficient time was required for a thorough study tour, and eighty days was selected—the same as that for the celebrated fictional story of world circumnavigation in the 1870s, a time when nickel was in its infancy and considered a rare metal.
About the Presenter
Phillip Mackey has 50 years of international metallurgical experience with a particular emphasis on operations and development in the processing of nickel, copper, lead, zinc, and precious metals. He has held senior operating and development roles within Falconbridge-Noranda now Glencore. As an independent consultant, including work with Worley, he has worked for over ten years with majors as well as for a number of junior mining companies.
During his time working for Falconbridge-Noranda, Mackey played a leading role in the development of the Noranda Process, one of the important metallurgical technologies of the twentieth century. He is the recipient of a number professional awards in the USA and Canada. The Phillip Mackey Symposium was held in his honor as part of the 2019 International Copper Conference in Vancouver in August 2019. He holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Tony Warner, Worley
Presentation Title: "A Review of Nickel Pyrometallurgy over the Past 50 Years with Special Reference to the Former INCO Ltd and Falconbridge Ltd."
About the Presentation
In the 1970s, Canada was the world’s leading nickel-producing country, and Canadian firms had big expansion plans. INCO had major in-house research programs underway developing technologies for laterite deposits overseas and for the nickel and copper refineries in Sudbury, Ontario. Two new laterite smelters were commissioned in the 1970s in Indonesia and Guatemala simultaneously based on the Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace Process. Falconbridge undertook similar programs and commissioned the Falcondo laterite smelter in the Dominican Republic based on the company’s proprietary technology in 1971. In the 1980s to 1994, the emphasis at the Canadian nickel smelters was mainly driven by environmental pressures to reduce SO2 emissions. From the 1990s up to the present time, significant environmental operational improvements have been achieved in Canada, and the development of technologies for the laterite deposits for the Koniambo and Goro projects in New Caledonia were shaped primarily by energy efficiency and environmental considerations. This talk will review these important developments that enabled the technology advances that were achieved by these companies. Other developments in nickel sulfide and laterite pyrometallurgy will also be discussed.
About the Presenter
Tony Warner has 50 years of base metal (primarily nickel, copper, and cobalt) pyrometallurgical industrial experience in operations, R&D, and engineering, retiring in 2005 from Inco Ltd. (now Vale) after 35 years. Since 2005, he has worked for Worley (Toronto) and is currently director of metallurgy smelting, and refining.
At Inco Ltd., he has held senior roles at the superintendent/manager level in process engineering, plant engineering, process technology and development, smelter operations, pilot plant operations, and R&D management in product and process research. Warner was involved in commissioning and operating the smelter at PT Inco, Indonesia, and then spent many years back in Canada at the Canadian smelters. He has been a key player in the continuing improvements to reduce emissions. Warner holds a B.Sc. (Eng) degree and Ph.D. (1970) in metallurgical engineering from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College in the U.K. and is a registered Professional Engineer since 1987.
Frank Santaguida, First Cobalt Corporation
Presentation Title: "Establishing a Domestic Cobalt Supply Chain: Unlocking Challenging Feedstocks"
About the Presentation
At present, a domestic integrated cobalt supply chain does not exist despite all of the natural resources and processing capacity potential in North America. Cobalt is a key component within lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles providing thermal stability to longer range energy cells. As a result, the demand for cobalt has grown significantly over the past 10 years and predicted to at least double in the next 10 years. The global supply chain is dominated by China, which produces 80% of the cobalt material used in battery manufacturing and controls a large proportion of the mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo where approximately 70% of the world’s cobalt ore resources occur and is mined.
About the Presenter
Frank Santaguida is a geoscientist with over 25 years of experience who has worked around the world on a wide range of base and precious metal ore deposits. His extensive experience in world-class base metal mining camps such as the Kidd Creek (Canada), Mt. Isa (Australia), the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (Finland), and the African Copperbelt (Zambia-DRC).
Santaguida started his career with the Ontario Geological Survey before joining Falconbridge Limited, where he held various positions in near-mine to regional grassroots exploration and in operating mines in Canada and Australia. He subsequently joined First Quantum Minerals Limited as principal geologist, where he was responsible for global exploration project generation and property evaluations for cobalt, copper, nickel, and platinum-group elements properties. Notably, he was part of the team that discovered new resources at the Frontier Mine, as well as new copper and cobalt prospects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Santaguida has a Ph.D. from Carleton University and an M.Sc. from the University of Waterloo.
Shijie Wang, Rio Tinto Kennecott Utah Copper Corp, USA
Presentation Title: "Sustainable Developments in Nickel Recovery Process"
About the Presentation
The conventional practice for controlling impurities and excess copper in the electrolyte at the copper refinery is to bleed a certain volume of electrolyte from the tankhouse and treat this bleed solution in a copper-removal circuit, i.e., deposit out or liberator cells. The decopperized electrolyte is then fed to the nickel sulfate plant, where crystallized nickel sulfate and black acid are produced from the evaporators. Aimed at sustainable developments, a new process to recover the nickel was innovated and commercialized to eliminate the production of black acid and to cut the elevated energy cost at the FMI – El Paso Operations. This new environmentally friendly process is narratively described, viz., advanced de-copperization; efficient recovery of sulfuric acid; effective removal of arsenic, antimony, and bismuth impurities; and economical recovery of nickel carbonate. Significant sustainable developments in energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction will also be discussed.
About the Presenter
Shijie Wang is a principal advisor at Rio Tinto Copper & Diamond. He has been active in extractive metallurgy and has more than 30 years of experience and expertise in metallurgical process development, existing operation optimization, and the metals strategy. His work interests include leaching-solution purification, smelting and refining, recycling, waste treatment, metal recovery, process safety, operational efficiency, and profitability. Wang holds four U.S. Patents, has published more than 50 journal papers including nonferrous metals’, precious metals’, rare metals’, and rare earth metals’ resourcefulness and recoveries. He received a B.S. degree in mineral process from China, an M.S. degree and a Ph.D. degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, USA. Wang has been very active in TMS since 1991. He was the chair of the Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee of TMS from 2011 to 2013 and the co-chair of the Extraction 2018 Conference with TMS, SME, and MetSoc in 2018. He has been the lead and co-organizer of seven symposia at international conferences through TMS. Wang received the TMS Extraction & Process Division (EPD) Distinguished Service Award in 2017.