Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals

Frank K. Crundwell is Director of Crundwell Metallurgy Limited, London, UK, CM Solutions (Pty) Ltd and is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has worked in research institutes, industrial refineries, academia and consultancies. He founded CM Solutions back in 2002, a sustainable laboratory and consultancy to the metallurgical industry. It develops flowsheets for a large variety of metals, such as copper, cobalt, gold platinum-group metals, nickel, and zinc, with a current focus on high purity products. Frank has more than 40 years’ experience in studying dissolution reactions, and more than 70 publications in the area. He has been awarded the Milton E. Wadsworth Award of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration for “innovative, rigorous contributions that have enhanced fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of oxidative and non-oxidative leaching of minerals including sulfides, oxides and silicates”. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (US) for this work.He has contributed to and solved several debates in the field: (i) how bacteria interact with minerals, (ii) mechanisms of quartz and silica dissolution (iii) how impurities impact dissolution. In addition, he has contributed to the electrochemical theory of dissolution, extending it to apply to dissolution of semiconductors. He previously co-authored the Elsevier book Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals (2011) with Michael Moats, Venkoba Ramachandran, Timothy Robinson, and W. G. Davenport.Professor William George Davenport is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Royal School of Mines, London. Prior to his academic career he worked with the Linde Division of Union Carbide in Tonawanda, New York. He spent a combined 43 years of teaching at McGill University and the University of Arizona.His Union Carbide days are recounted in the book Iron Blast Furnace, Analysis, Control and Optimization (English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish editions).During the early years of his academic career he spent his summers working in many of Noranda Mines Company’s metallurgical plants, which led quickly to the book Extractive Metallurgy of Copper. This book has gone into five English language editions (with several printings) and Chinese, Farsi and Spanish language editions.He also had the good fortune to work in Phelps Dodge’s Playas flash smelter soon after coming to the University of Arizona. This experience contributed to the book Flash Smelting, with two English language editions and a Russian language edition and eventually to the book Sulfuric Acid Manufacture (2006), 2nd edition 2013.In 2013 co-authored Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals, which took him to all the continents except Antarctica. He and four co-authors are just finishing up the book Rare Earths: Science, Technology, Production and Use, which has taken him around the United States, Canada and France, visiting rare earth mines, smelters, manufacturing plants, laboratories and recycling facilities.Professor Davenport’s teaching has centered on ferrous and non-ferrous extractive metallurgy. He has visited (and continues to visit) about 10 metallurgical plants per year around the world to determine the relationships between theory and industrial practice. He has also taught plant design and economics throughout his career and has found this aspect of his work particularly rewarding. The delight of his life at the university has, however, always been academic advising of students on a one-on-one basis.Professor Davenport is a Fellow (and life member) of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and a twenty-five year member of the (U.S.) Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. He is recipient of the CIM Alcan Award, the TMS Extractive Metallurgy Lecture Award, the AusIMM Sir George Fisher Award, the AIME Mineral Industry Education Award, the American Mining Hall of Fame Medal of Merit and the SME Milton E. Wadsworth award. In September 2014 he will be honored by the Conference of Metallurgists’ Bill Davenport Honorary Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia (his home town).

• Overview; Nickel Occurrence, Production, Use and Price; Production of Ferronickel and Nickel from Laterite Ore – Ore Upgrading; Smelting Laterite Concentrates to Ferronickel – Dewatering and Calcination/Reduction; Smelting Laterite Concentrates to Ferronickel – Electric Furnace Reduction/Melting; Refining Ferronickel; Smelting Laterite Concentrates to Sulfide Matte; Roasting Ni Matte to Oxide and Metal; Capture of SO2 as Sulfuric Acid; Hydrometallurgy of Laterite ores – Overview and High Temperature Sulfuric Acid Leaching; Solid/Liquid Separation; Solution Purification and Sulfide Precipitation; Extraction of Nickel from Sulfide ores – Introduction and Concentrate Production; Smelting Sulfide Concentrates – Introduction and Electric Furnace Smelting; Flash Smelting Ni Sulfide Concentrates; Oxidizing Molten Smelting Furnace Matte (Converting); Separation of Matte into Three Phases; Carbonyl Refining of Impure Ni Metal; Hydrometallurgical Production of High Purity Nickel from Ni Sulfide Intermediates; Co/Ni Separation and Solution Purification; Electrowinning and H2 Reduction of Nickel and Cobalt; Cobalt Occurrence, Production, Use and Price; Extraction of Cobalt from Sulfide Ores; Extraction of Cobalt from Laterite Ores; Extraction of Cobalt from Central African Co-Cu Ores; Platinum Group Metal Occurrence, Production, Use and Price; Production of Pt Sulfide Concentrates; Smelting Pt Concentrates to Matte; Preparing Pt Refinery Feed from Matte; Pt Group Metal Refining; Recycling of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals. Appendices A Metal Properties; B Stoichiometric Data; C Thermodynamic Data; D Minor processes – e.g. Moroccan Arsenic Ore Processing

"The strength of the book lies in the number of Tables comparing production details in different smelters and refineries around the world and the list of references at the end of each chapter. The book also includes many operating details for furnaces and other equipment as well as analyses of materials handled. This information must be considered as authoritative since the authors mention that they visited many plants and collected data on site... The book is a welcome addition to the metallurgical library and any one involved in the nickel industry must be aware of this book."-- MEIBlog"A team of specialists from various companies and universities trace the extraction and processing of the three metals from ore in the ground to high-purity metals and chemicals. Nickel, cobalt, and platinum-group metals often occur together, are extracted together, and have similar properties. The topics discussed include smelting laterite concentrates to sulfide matte, extracting nickel and cobalt from sulfide ores, the slow cooling and solidification of converter matte, extracting cobalt from nickel laterite and sulfide ores, and smelting and converting sulfide concentrates containing platinum-group metals."-- Reference and Research News, October 2012