ALTILIUM TECHNOLOGY

ALTILIUM TECHNOLOGY

Altilium’s patented technology uses nitric acid to extract all the metals present in the feed:

• As a result, the mass of the feed is reduced to leave just an inert silicate residue (with some trace nitrate compounds) – No tailings result from the processes;
• 99% of the nitric acid is recovered and reused in a closed-loop system;
• Target metals for Altilium’s process flowsheets include nickel, cobalt, scandium, rare earth elements, aluminium, iron, vanadium and titanium, amongst others;

Recent achievements to date include:

• The highest REE extractions from a laterite-type ore known to date;
• Production of a very high-quality alumina containing 99.5% aluminium from red mud;
• Production of a very high-quality (>97% pure) hematite (Fe2O3) from red mud; and
• Direct production of nickel and cobalt sulphates, by-passing MHP, from a blend of limonite and saprolite.

Increasing access to critical metals: Through the processing of ores or tailings which are currently simply not economic to address, Altilium’s technology will increase access to critical metals.

With respect to tailings, which can be critical metal-rich, re-processing these deposits will lead to site remediation, eliminating threats to the environment, while delivering much-needed metals.

Atilium’s flexible technology will be industry disruptive (for example, it could render the Bayer process obsolete). Process flowsheets already developed include:

• Altilium Nickel Laterite Process™ – the first to be developed and fully piloted, it processes the entire lateritic ore body (limonite, saprolite and transition zone) and extracts nickel and cobalt as sulphates together with scandium, aluminium, iron as co-products and a blend of magnesium and other sulphates as a by-product;
• Altilium Bauxite Process™ – a modification of the Nickel Laterite Process, it extracts metals from bauxite ore and produces high-quality alumina and hematite as well any REEs present;
• Altilium Red Mud Process™ – similar to the Bauxite Process but modified to re-process bauxite residue (red mud) and a blend of bauxite and red mud may be processed together to improve project economics; and
• Altilium Ti/REE Process™ – another modification of the Nickel Laterite Process, designed to extract titanium and rare earth elements from a lateritic or clay-type ores.

Learn More