低品位ニッケル酸化鉱からのニッケル, コバルトの回収に関する技術開発および商業化 Process Development and Commissioning of HPAL Plant for Recovery of Nickel and Cobalt from Low Grade Laterite Nickel Ore

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. (SMMC) has been producing nickel and cobalt by MCLE process at Nickel Refinery in Niihama, Japan. Coral Bay Nickel Co. (CBNC), which is a subsidiary company of SMMC, has been producing the mixed sulfide of nickel and cobalt (MS) at Rio Tuba in Palawan, Philippines. The project that utilizes high pressure acid leach (HPAL) process was commenced in 2000. The construction of the plant was completed in September 2004. Since then, the HPAL plant of CBNC has been commissioned and the production rate of nickel at CBNC was exceeded over 10000 Ni-ton in 2007, which is the design capacity. This is the first track record in the laterite nickel operations. The mixed sulfide of nickel and cobalt produced at CBNC, is further refined to electrolytic nickel of 99.99% purity at Niihama Nickel Refinery of SMMC. The technology for production high purity nickel from low-grade laterite ore has been established and commercialized by the Coral Bay Nickel Project.