Mineral change of Philippine and Indonesia nickel lateritic ore during sintering and mineralogy of their sinter

Abstract

Mineral changes of Philippine and Indonesia nickel lateritic ores during the sintering and the mineralogy of their sinter were studied in present work. A laboratory scale sintering pot was used to prepare the sinter samples. Thermo-gravimetric (TG) tests, differential thermal analysis (DTA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were carried out to understand the mineral change of laterites. These measurements indicate that chlorite (Fe, Mg, Al) 3(Si, Al)2O5(OH)4 and serpentine Mg21Si2O28(OH)34H2O are the primary phases, while FeO(OH) and (Fe,Mg,)3Si4O 10(OH)2 are the minor phases in both Philippine and Indonesia nickel laterite. The XRD, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) were used to analyze the sinter samples; the results demonstrate that olivine (Mg,Fe)2SiO4 is the main bonding phase in both Philippine and Indonesia laterite sinters, and spinel MgFe2O4 is also found as the solid bonding phase in the Philippine laterite sinter. © 2010 ISIJ.