Process

The run of mine (ROM) ore is received from the mine by truck into the feeder breaker feed bin, from which it is fed into two stages of crushing before the ore is transported by a pipe conveyor to the processing plant. The ore in the stockpile will receive further size reduction and milling prior to tank leaching. In this stage tertiary crushing and ball milling will be conducted. Atmospheric tank leaching is the processing method for Çaldağ ore where the fresh ore slurry is mixed with the concentrated sulphuric acid. After leaching, the slurry is fed into a thickener. The thickener overflow from this stage is directed to iron precipitation circuit. Thickened underflow is directed to Counter-Current-Decantation (CCD) circuit for washing. For stabilization purposes, the washed solids are mixed with limestone. Then, the slurry is filtered through a press filter. After filtration, the solids are trucked to a disposal area where pregnant leach solution from iron precipitation flows into the Solvent Extraction and Electro Winning circuit for extracting nickel and cobalt. Çaldağ nickel will produce 16000 t/annum nickel and 900 t/annum cobalt in full scale production.