1981 Volume 97 Issue 1122 Pages 795-797
In 1933, Nippon Mining Co., Ltd.(N. M. C.) started the first ferro-nickel production in Japan at Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery by using an electric furnace. At that time, they smelted 75 metric tons of ore into 12 metric tons of ferro-nickel per month and produced 70 metric tons of slag.
Today, 50, 000 metric tons of ore is smelted into 5, 000 metric tons of ferro-nickel and 4, 000 metric tons of slag per month by the blast furnace process and the electric furnace process.
For 1933-1980, N. M. C. have developed many techniques and processes in ferro-nickel field such as practical use of ferro-nickel to special steel making, blast furnace process, fertilizer production from slag, and so forth, and experienced almost all of ferro-nickel smelting processes, namely, electric furnace process, blast furnace process, Krupp-Renn process and Elkem process.
Among above mentioned processes, the most effective energy saving process is the blast furnace process and Elkem process is the most pdpular one. At Saganoseki Smelter & Refinery, these two processes are making good combination and producing many kinds of ferro-nickel with about 15, 000 metric tons of contained nickel per year.