Methodological framework demonstrates mass balance closure across nickel laterite processing circuits, indicating that verifying scandium distribution must precede separation testing.
This technical preprint proposes a measurement-first framework for evaluating scandium recovery from nickel laterite HPAL circuits in New Caledonia. Rather than assuming a predetermined recovery point, it argues that the site-specific scandium mass balance should first be closed across liquid and solid process streams. The framework combines process mapping, simultaneous sampling, phase-resolved analysis, measured flow rates, uncertainty propagation and explicit go/no-go gates to identify whether an aqueous sulfate liquor, Fe-Al-rich solid, Ni-Co hydroxide/MHP intermediate, or another stream constitutes a technically meaningful scandium feed. Only after the scandium distribution is established should ion exchange, adsorption, selective releaching, precipitation or solvent extraction be evaluated against the real process matrix. The approach is deliberately falsifiable: if no stream combines sufficient scandium inventory, enrichment, accessibility and manageable matrix conditions, recovery development should stop.
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Alchimiste Du Terroir (2026) studied this question.
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