The object of the study is salt concentrates formed as a result of treatment of concentrated acidic and alkaline wastewater of galvanic processes, realized on Ural Optical & Mechanical Plant (Russia). Salt concentrates are to be disposed of as low-hazard substances, but periodically the presence of nickel ions in them was detected. Concentration of nickel ions reaches up to 0.3 g/L, the total salt content reaches 200 g/L. The possibility of sorption purification of salt concentrates from nickel on the aminocarboxylicionite Lewatit TP 207 was studied, and the capacitance characteristics of the ionite were determined. It is shown that a high salt background does not reduce the ion exchange capacity of ionite for nickel. The dynamic capacity of Lewatit TP 207 before the breakthrough was 0.155 g/g. Nickel desorption is carried out with 20% sulfuric acid. The maximum concentration of nickel in the eluates was 25.484 g/L. Such eluates can be returned to the nickel-plating bath. The technology of periodic ion-exchange purification of salt concentrates is proposed.

Oxidized nickel ores (ONO) contain most of the world’s nickel reserves. However, choice of a cost-effe nickel ore processing technology is difficult due to the dispersed distribution of nickel compounds in refractory minerals, low nickel content, presence of a large amounts of consuming host rocks, and impossibility of beneficiation by conventional physicochemical methods. The paper presents studies on the ONO processing technology by means of chloride sublimation roasting. Sodium and calcium chlorides were used as chlorinating agents both individually and in various ratios. It has been shown that roasting allows for nickel and cobalt conversion into chloride form followed by selective distillation of the resulting compounds into the gas phase by 89 – 90% at a roasting temperature of 1100 °C.

The paper considers the features of gold deportments in technogenic raw materials – aged clinker of zinc production at the Belovsky zinc plant (Belovo, Kemerovo Region). The Belovsky plant operated from 1930 to 2003 using zinc concentrates from the Salairsky ore mining and processing plant. After the plant shutdown, clinker dumps were stored at the plant’s mill site and were repeatedly washed with acidic solutions to isolate copper. This form of storage and leaching led to the transformation of precious metal deportments in clinker, which currently makes it difficult to extract gold. The gold content in clinker is at the level of 2–3 g/t, which makes gold recovery profitable. The presence of carbon in clinker complicates the use of known methods of both analytical detection of gold and its recovery. A method is proposed for determining the deportment and content of gold taking into account the fact that gold may be present in the form of free fine gold, as well as gold finely disseminated in iron and its oxides, in sulfide phases, in the quartz-silicate part of clinker and in the carbonaceous phase. It was shown that gold deportments in clinker change depending on the storage conditions and preceding acid treatment, and this affects the choice of the material processing flow chart. The share of gold available for leaching is at least 40 %. The increased associativity of gold with the coal (flotation-active) phase and the sorption activity of coal significantly interfere with the study into the properties of gold deportments in clinker, which requires preliminary carbon removal.

Currently, there are practiced various pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical, and com-bined pyro and hydrometallurgical methods for processing of oxidized nickel ores to produce metal-lic nickel, cobalt, and their compounds in non-ferrous metallurgy. The problem is the difficult ore concentration, and consequently the high consumption of reagents or low extraction of valuable components from it. Ural plants previously implemented the technology of reducing-sulphiding smelting of laterite ore to produce fire nickel and transfer of cobalt to matte. The economic ineffi-ciency of this technology predetermined the search for a new method for processing of significant reserves of oxidized nickel ores in the Ural region.

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