Elution strategies for recovery of nickel and cobalt from laterite tails through scavenging resin-in-pulp

The loss of residual nickel and cobalt to tailings represents a large inefficiency in many existing laterite operations. The majority of these losses can be avoided through treatment of tailings with scavenging resin-in-pulp. The resin produced through such circuits is loaded with a high proportion of impurity metals, complicating downstream processing. Selective elution of resin to, recover nickel and cobalt preferentially over impurity metals can be carried out with multistage acid stripping or single stage ammoniacal stripping. Each option allows different methods for production of saleable material to reclaim value metal that could have otherwise been lost