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The objective of this investigation was to validate a methodology of investigation to be implemented at industrial scale in the Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara Nickel Processing Plant for long periods of time in a Demonstrative Unit of Commercial Production (one slab consisting of eight kilns) at the reduction Kilns Plant in order to design a reliable production database for statistical processing and to show the influence of the oxidized mineral content on the extractable nickel and the behavioral tendency of the extractable cobalt. During three months of monitoring, the experiments showed the effectiveness of the COMPRAC software for the industry to obtain the rational composition of 100 kg of various types of lateritic ore feed to the reduction kilns. Graphics representing the influence of the main ore content on the extractable nickel and cobalt were obtained for the first time from the designed database, in a sufficiently reliable and sensitive manner in the case of the nickel, for an effective decision-making associated to operational issues encountered at the Mine-Ore Slurry Preparation- Reduction Kiln circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper it is shown a synthesized critical analysis of the different kinds of losses of cobalt during the process of ammoniacal carbonate leaching of the reduced lateritic ores. The analysis has been carried out by means of correlating the world industrial practice with the results of the main researches that have proved its scientific foundations. On these bases it is proposed a procedure of leaching that includes several lines of investigation to be carried out at miniplant scale, and four alternatives to be evaluated for two reduction conditions: The current one and the one for the future improvement that guarantee Ni and Co extractions over 90 and 70% respectively. The most important feature of the procedure is based on the process of ruling the Fe oxidation through the air controlled by redox potential under conditions of high concentrations of Fe in the liquor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]