红土矿的过去与未来

The past and the future of nickel laterites

从红土矿中生产镍自新喀里多尼亚的硅镁镍矿的处理开始已有100多年了。然而,直到今天,全世界的镍主要来自硫化矿。纵观未来,作者预测产自硫化矿的镍量变化不大,在今后的10年里镍产量的扩大主要来源于红土矿。因此新的红土矿项目的投资和生产费用将对镍的供应和镍价有较大的影响。此文回顾了红土矿项目的历史并分析了近期不同的红土矿项目和在“图板上”的项目的投资和生产费用,也评估了这些项目的风险,并将讨论这些因素对进一步开发红土矿项目的影响。

Production of nickel from laterite ores has occurred for over 100 years beginning with processing of garnieritic ores from New Caledonia. However, until now the world nickel supply has been predominantly from sulfide sources. Going forward, the authors project that the production of nickel from sulfide ores will remain more or less constant. Most of the expansion in nickel production capacity over the next ten years will come from processing of laterite ores. Thus the capital and operating costs of new laterite projects will have significant impact on the nickel supply and therefore price. The authors have reviewed the history and capital and operating costs of various recent laterite projects and of those “on the drawing board”. The authors have also evaluated the risk associated with such projects. The paper will discuss the impacts of this and the recent history on the future development of laterite nickel projects.