Siltation sediments from nickel laterite mines usually contain significant amounts of iron, which are of little economic importance and could potentially harm the environment and local community. The problem of siltation associated with nickel laterite mining operations is the most common concern directly affecting the way of life of people dependent on farming and fishing for their livelihoods. A particular example is in agriculture, where iron is toxic to rice; this will endanger the livelihood of rice farmers especially those in farmlands close to a laterite mining area. In order to address this issue, nickel laterite siltation sediments which are rich in iron can be reprocessed into value added products for environmental applications. Various feasible approaches of utilising mining waste as raw materials for value added products have been reported by several studies. For example, iron present in these lateritic sediments may be reprocessed to produce magnetic nanoparticles that have a plethora of potential applications ranging from medical equipment to adsorbents for wastewater treatment. One low-cost and facile procedure in reprocessing these ferriferous silty sediments is through dissolution-coprecipitation where one part of the ferrous ion and two parts of ferric ions are mixed and then treated with a basic neutraliser to form magnetite.
CITATION: Opiso, E, Ramos, L M, Aseniero, J P, Delfinado, J R, Park, I, Orbecido, A and Tabelin, C B, 2019. Reprocessing of ferriferous nickel laterite siltation sediments into magnetic nanoparticles through coprecipitation, in Proceedings Future Mining 2019, pp 107110 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).