At Meta Nickel Cobalt Inc., following research conducted on the licensed lateritic nickel ore fields of the Gördes facility, it was determined that the most efficient hydrometallurgical recovery method is the high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL), which is the state-of-the-art technology application. All investments have been made based on this hydrometallurgical process, making this facility a source of pride as it stands as the only application of its kind in Turkey.
The HPAL process is a cutting-edge technology applied for the selective dissolution of nickel and cobalt in a titanium alloy autoclave reactor under 255°C temperature and 46 bar pressure. In this hydrometallurgical process, the slurry fed into the high-pressure system is heated with steam recovered from the expansion tanks in three stages. The slurry is then transferred to the autoclave reactor using specially designed pumps for this process, where it is dissolved with sulfuric acid. Under the influence of temperature and high pressure, all reactions take place in a short period, leaving the autoclave reactor with high dissolution efficiency in about an hour. The pressure and temperatures are gradually reduced in three stages in the expansion tanks, bringing them to atmospheric conditions.

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Following examinations conducted on the licensed lateritic nickel ore fields of Meta Nickel Cobalt Inc.'s Gördes facility, it has been determined that the most efficient hydrometallurgical storage method is high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL), which is the state-of-the-art technology application. All investments have been made based on this hydrometallurgical process, making this facility a source of pride as it stands as the only applicable one in Turkey