Beneficiation of a Greek serpentinic nickeliferous ore: Part I. Mineral processing

Serpentinic ore, from the “Kastoria” nickeliferous deposit in Northern Greece, was first processed to reject as much of its calcite content as possible. Partial separation of calcite from the ore was achieved by the use of a strong magnetic field, the extent of which depended on feed particle size. The losses of nickel in the nonmagnetic product were about 5%, while the percentage CaO removal was about 37%. Based on the experimental findings, a mineral processing scheme was devised and applied in order to prepare a suitable sulphuric acid heap or agitation leaching feed.