With China’s continuing economic boom, the demand for nickel has seen unprecedented growth over the past 10 years. Most of the world’s nickel is present in nickel laterite deposits. These high volume, low grade deposits are now being exploited and processed. An understanding of nickel laterite rheology and the ability to obtain meaningful rheological data is essential to process intensification and stability. / The properties and physical characteristics of 8 industrial nickel laterite slurries as well as two alumina slurries were examined using various rheological techniques. The samples chosen covered a wide range of physical conditions such as differing pH, particle size distributions, solids densities and mineralogy as well as country and deposit of origin. The rheological parameters investigated were the yield stress and shear stress vs. shear rate of the particulate slurries. Considerable attention was focused on the techniques used in shear stress vs. shear rate characterisation, including capillary rheometry, smooth and roughened cup and bob rheometry and the vane in infinite medium technique. / This work confirmed the finding of previous works, showing nickel laterite slurry rheological behaviour ranging from time independent to thixotropic to rheopectic. It found the vane in infinite medium technique highly suitable for testing nickel laterites at process relevant yield stresses. This technique gave data that correlated well with vane yield stresses and capillary rheometry data. Cup and bob tests showed significant slip at lower shear rates. In a number of cases, the cup and bob techniques also showed erroneously high stresses at higher shear rates. / The vane yield stress was found to be a fast and accurate method for monitoring nickel laterite sample aging and the samples tested exhibited 100 Pa yield stresses at solids fractions ranging from 0.389 to 0.524. Blending of nickel laterites was found to be nonlinear, and confirmed that characterisation at various blend ratios is necessary if blending is to be utilised during production.

Western Mining Corporation produces nickel matte at the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter(KNS)from nickel sulphide concentrates within an integrated flash smelter.

Abstract The main cause of temperature and composition fluctuations in the electric arc furnace (EAF) process is the scrap used as a raw material. Process conditions in EAF can vary significantly from heat to heat because there is no accurate information of scrap composition. Due to harsh process conditions, there are currently few sensors available for direct on-line measurement of the EAF process. In this work new information about stainless steelmaking EAF process conditions is sought with optical emission spectrum measurement. The measurement system relies on transportation of the light emitted from the measured furnace to a remotely situated spectrometer. Analysing the slag composition from the arc emission spectrum was tested in the laboratory and on a pilot scale. The laboratory measurements indicate that changes in the amount of CrOx and MnO in the slag have the highest impact on optical emission spectra. The pilot scale measurements show that the Cr2O3 content of the slag can be measured from the arc emission spectrum using suitable reference lines with an average absolute error of 0.62 %-points and a standard deviation of 0.49 %-points. The results from measurements at Outokumpu Stainless Oy, Tornio Works, indicate that measurement of the optical emission spectrum from industrial EAF is feasible in a practical sense, and can be used in analysing of EAF atmosphere, scrap melting and slag surface. Furthermore, the results of industrial measurements indicate that the atoms in the arc plasma mainly originate from the slag. The measurement of scrap melting could be potentially used in EAF control in optimization of arc voltages and second scrap bucket charging. The potential use of slag CrOx measurements is in optimization of reductant additions as well as defining the further processing of EAF slag. / Tiivistelmä Valokaariuunien ohjaus on perinteisesti ollut uunioperaattorin käsissä. Valokaaariuuniprosessin on-line mittaukseen on olevassa vähän menetelmiä johtuen uunin hyvin haastavaista olosuhteista. Tässä työssä on tutkittu optiseen emissiospektroskopiaan perustuvaa menetelmää uuden jatkuva-aikaisen tiedon tuottamisessa valokaariuuniprosessista. Mittausjärjestelmä perustuu valon keräämiseen mitattavasta uunista valokuidun avulla, joka johtaa valon analysoitavaksi etäälle prosessista sijoitettuun spektrometriin. Mittauksia suoritettiin laboratorio-, pilot- ja tehdas-mittakaavassa. Valokaariuunin kuonan koostumuksen analysointia testattiin laboratorio- ja pilot-mittakaavan uuneilla. Laboratoriomittaukset osoittivat että kuonan komponenteista CrOx ja MnO ja vaikuttavat eniten mitattuun emissiospektriin. Pilot-mittakaavan kokeissa havaittiin, että kuonan Cr2O3-pitoisuutta voidaan mitata valokaaren emissiospektristä 0,62 %-yksikön keskimääräisellä absoluuttisella virheellä ja 0,49 %-yksikkön hajonnalla. Teollisella valokaariuunilla suoritetuista mittauksista havaittiin että optisen emissiospektrin mittaus voidaan suorittaa ilman ylitsepääsemättömiä teknisiä esteitä. Mittauksen tuloksia voidaan puolestaan käyttää kaasufaasin reaktioiden, romun sulamisen ja kuonapinnan ominaisuuksien arvioinnissa. Valokaaren emissiospektrin analyysi osoitti, että valokaaren plasman komponentit ovat pääosin peräisin kuonasta, joka mahdollistaa kuonan koostumuksen arvioinnin valokaaren emissiospektrin perusteella. Romun sulamisen mittausta voidaan prosessinohjauksessa käyttää jänniteportaiden ja toisen korin panostuksen optimointiin. Kuonan kromipitoisuuden mittaamista voidaan puolestaan käyttää pelkistinaineiden lisäyksen optimointiin ja kuonan jatkokäsittelyn valintaan.