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Carbothermic Reduction of Nickeliferous Laterite Ores for Nickel Pig Iron Production in China: A Review

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Abstract

Both the consumption and production of crude stainless steel in China rank first in the world. In 2011, the nickel production in China amounted to 446 kilotons, with the proportion of electrolytic nickel and nickel pig iron (NPI) registering 41.5% and 56.5%, respectively. NPI is a low-cost feedstock for stainless steel production when used as a substitute for electrolytic nickel. The existing commercial NPI production processes such as blast furnace smelting, rotary kiln-electric furnace smelting, and Krupp-Renn (Nipon Yakin Oheyama) processes are discussed. As low-temperature (below 1300°C) reduction of nickeliferous laterite ores followed by magnetic separation could provide an alternative avenue without smelting at high temperature (~1500°C) for producing ferronickel with low cost, the fundamentals and recent developments of the low-temperature reduction of nickeliferous laterite ores are reviewed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET–11–0515) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate (CX2011B124) for financial support of this research. Special thanks go to Dr. Phillip J. Mackey (P.J. Mackey Technology Inc.) and Dr. Zhiwei Peng (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University) for helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

    Mingjun Rao, Guanghui Li, Tao Jiang, Jun Luo, Yuanbo Zhang & Xiaohui Fan

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  1. Mingjun Rao
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  2. Guanghui Li
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Correspondence to Guanghui Li.

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Rao, M., Li, G., Jiang, T. et al. Carbothermic Reduction of Nickeliferous Laterite Ores for Nickel Pig Iron Production in China: A Review. JOM 65, 1573–1583 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-013-0760-7

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