Until now, flotation process has not been successful to recover nickel
from laterite ores. This has been associated with the complexmineralogy
of the laterites. Therefore, the mineralogical analysis is essential to identify
the type and amount of nickel-bearing minerals, as well as the degree
of their liberation. Nickel in laterite ores is often finely disseminated in
various minerals in very fine size. Grinding to such a fine size is difficult
using the traditional grinding tools. Therefore, fine grinding should be
used to liberate nickel-containing particles. Particles resulted from such
fine grinding are often in order of less than 38 μm and recovery of these
particles is generally low in conventional flotation cells. One option to
overcome this problem is using new flotation cells such as reactor–
separator which has more probability of particle–bubble attachment.
Other option for enhancing the particle–bubble attachment is increasing
the particle size and forming flocs. Selective flocculation can be therefore
the key to enhance the flotation performance of laterite ores.