In the composition of oxidized nickel ores, nickel is found in the form of hydrated silicate minerals having a complex composition. It has been established that the reduction conditions of different nickel minerals are not the same and must be determined experimentally for each deposit. Therefore, of great practical interest is the study of the reducibility of the natural silicate monomineral of nickel — garnierite — and the comparison of the established regularities with the reducibility of nickel from oxidized nickel ore. ...

Experiments on segregation roasting of pyrrhotite calcines in a laboratory batch rotary tube furnace showed the promise of this method for processing the type of raw material under consideration, so the research was continued on an enlarged laboratory scale. ...

The mechanism of converter slag depletion includes the process of coalescence and settling of matte droplets, on the efficiency of which the extraction of valuable components depends. ...

The main directions of technical progress in non-ferrous metallurgy, provided for by the Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU on the ninth five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR, are: increasing the extraction of metals from ores, improving the integrated use of raw materials, and the widespread introduction of closed technological flowsheets with full processing of intermediate products.

Despite significant advances achieved in the development of methods for selective chlorination and chloride volatilization of materials containing nickel, cobalt and copper, iron chlorides remain an indispensable component of both the gas phase and the condensate. This indicates the possibility of interaction of gaseous ferric chloride with oxides of non-ferrous metals in the chlorination zone and with oxygen in the condensation system. As a result of the latter process, iron is converted from gaseous chloride to solid oxide, which improves the selectivity of the condensate, and the released chlorine can be returned to the chloride volatilization process. The present work is devoted to the study of some regularities of these processes.

One of the most important tasks of beneficiation engineers and metallurgists is to find better methods of complex utilization of polymetallic ores: lead-copper-zinc and copper-zinc ores containing, in addition to base metals Cu, Pb, Zn, a number of other associated metals – Au, Ag, V, Cd, Se, Te, Sn, Tl, Ge, In, Ni, Co, As, Sb, Hg and others. The value of base metals, including noble metals, contained in the ores is often no more than 50‑70% of the value of all metals in the ores. Conventional methods of beneficiation of most polymetallic ores do not provide rich and pure selective concentrates with sufficiently high recovery of the corresponding metals. The recovery of lead in lead concentrate is 75‑88%, zinc in zinc concentrate 78‑85%, copper in copper concentrate 68‑78%.

Pyrite concentrates obtained from the beneficiation of many polymetallic ores usually contain, in addition to iron and sulfur, small amounts of cobalt, copper, zinc, lead, nickel and other metals. When using these concentrates for the production of sulfuric acid, the bulk of sulfur is extracted, and the resulting cinders are industrial ore in terms of their iron content. In view of the low content of non-ferrous metals, the usual methods and schemes used in obtaining these metals from rich ores cannot be used for their extraction.

In order to improve the process of chloride distillation of pyrite concentrate cinders the behavior of cobalt, copper, zinc and iron in this process was studied. The studies were carried out on an enlarged laboratory unit with the necessary changes and additions in the scheme. [1] See A. K. Orlov, I. N. Piskunov. “On the regularities of the process of chloride distillation of cobalt from pyrite concentrate cinders” in this volume.