Enhanced recovery of nickel and high-value coproducts from domestic mine tailings

CMI Highlight: Enhanced recovery of nickel and high-value coproducts  from domestic mine tailings

CMI researchers at Colorado School of Mines and Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted the research for this highlight.

Innovation 
Integrated surface conditioning, copper activation, selective flotation, and feedstock-specific testing to recover Ni, Co, Cu, and platinum group metals (PGMs) from legacy Eagle Mine tailings.

Achievement 
Novel flotation conditions achieved an additional 81.8% Ni recovery and 4.55x enrichment from high-grade tailings, increasing the overall recovery of all critical minerals to more than 90%. Selective acid treatment increased recovery from medium-grade feed by 22.7% points relative to the baseline, while a higher CuSO4 dosage further improved recovery from the tailings.

Significance and Impact
Establishes a technically promising pathway for recovering domestic nickel from mine waste while identifying feed mineralogy and mineral liberation as key priorities for developing an integrated recovery process.

Hub Target Addressed 
Enhancing domestic production of PGMs alongside Ni, Co and Cu.

diagram and image Scale-up focus: validate reproducibility, optimize liberation size, control process-water effects, and evaluate feed mineralogy effects.
Scale-up focus: validate reproducibility, optimize liberation size, control process-water effects, and evaluate feed mineralogy effects.