Effects of CaO Addition on the Iron Recycling from Nickel Slags by Oxidation-Magnetic Separation

To recover iron from water-quenched nickel slags, CaO was added. Thermodynamic analysis showed that CaO promotes the reaction between fayalite (Fe2SiO4) and O2. Phase diagrams of the FeO-SiO2-MgO-CaO slag with various CaO contents in an air atmosphere drawn by FactSage 7.1 showed that the phase components can be significantly affected by the CaO contents. With increasing CaO content, the fusion characteristic temperatures decreased rapidly to a minimum and subsequently increased slightly. The oxidization of Fe2SiO4 in nickel slags was accelerated significantly by the addition of CaO, which led to an increase of FeO activity and decrease of Fe2O3 activity to promote the formation of MgFe2O4. Excess addition of CaO led to the formation of more silicates. In addition, the crystallization temperature was also reduced with increasing CaO content, causing less spinel to crystalize. With increasing CaO content, the iron recovery and yield of concentrate first increased and subsequently decreased, while the total iron (TFe) content was almost not influenced and maintained a relatively stable value.