Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
On-line version ISSN 2411-9717
KESKINKILIC, E.; POURNADERI, S.; GEVECI, A. and TOPKAYA, Y.A.. Calcination characteristics of laterite ores from the central region of Anatolia. J. S. Afr. Inst. Min. Metall. [online]. 2012, vol.112, n.10, pp. 877-882. ISSN 2411-9717.
Drying, calcination, prereduction, and smelting are the main steps in conventional crude ferronickel production. Industrially, these steps are conducted using the rotary kiln-electric arc furnace (RKEF) process. In this paper, calcination characteristics of Sivrihisar laterite ores from the Central Anatolia region are investigated. The extent of elimination of chemically bound water and other volatiles was studied by experiments conducted at various temperatures in the 250-800°C range. Phase changes were examined using X-ray diffractometry. For the particle size used in the study, 300°C was determined to be almost sufficient for complete transformation of goethite to haematite, and 700°C was required for effective elimination of all volatiles in the ore.
Keywords : laterite; calcination; nickel.