Development of Preparation Method and Filteration Equipment for Laterite Nickel-Cobalt Ore Analysis Sample

This paper describes a sample preparation method and the development of filter equipment for laterite nickel-cobalt ore analysis. Usually, for most of the laboratory, the preparation of lateritic nickel-cobalt ore sample is finely ground directly through the gravel, or further pulverized after throwing away the mineral gravel. Because the sample contains a certain proportion of gravel with amount of nickel and cobalt. With the traditional methods, it results in about 10% of lower grade for Ni and Co deposits. In this paper, laterite nickel-cobalt ore sample is dried and then thinly rolled, through the 2 mm standard screening, the on-sieve sample through 2 mm standard sieve is retained, the under-sieve sample is washed with water to remove the gravel. The on-sieve samples washed with water are dewatered, then dried by filtration equipment. The on-sieve and under-sieve samples are fully mixed, split with cone-fourth of the heap method, then grounded into particles with 74 μm (200 mesh) to get the analytical sample. The content of Ni and Co in sample prepared with this method is 7%-14% higher than the content obtained from traditional griding method. The sample preparation method is fast and secure with the advantage of high efficiency, no pollution and low cost. The data from prepared sample can accurately represent for the real content of Ni and Co in nickel-cobalt ore deposit. The preparation method can pay an important role in geological exploration and deposit evaluation, also can provide important technical support for smelting of nickel-cobalt deposit.