Experimental study on cobalt recovery process from extremely low-grade cobalt sulfide concentrate
With the rapid development of new energy vehicles,energy storage systems and other industries,the demand for cobalt continues to grow,making cobalt recovery particularly important.Sulfur and cobalt concentrate is a powdered mineral obtained by processing raw vanadium and titanium magnetite ore through crushing,grinding,iron beneficiation,sulfur flotation,etc.The main components are sulfur and iron,and it also contains precious metals such as cobalt,copper and nickel.Sulfur cobalt concentrate is one of the main raw materials for the production of cobalt products,but the cobalt content in it is usually low,which needs to be further processed and recovered to improve its utilization value.Thestudy focuses on the characteristics of cobalt sulfide concentrate,which has extremely low cobalt grade and complex element occurrence state.The oxygen pressure leaching process was adopted,and the results show with a leaching temperature controlled at 160±5℃,a leaching oxygen partial pressure of 1.2 MPa,a reaction time of 2h,a liquid-solid ratio of 4:1,and an initial acid concentration of 16%.Under these conditions,the leaching rates of cobalt,copper,iron,and sulfur reach 78.5%,75.4%,32.7%,and 31.4%,respectively.The direct economic benefit of disposing of one ton of cobalt sulfide concentrate was $30.36.Calculated based on the annual production and processing of 800 000 tons of cobalt sulfide concentrate,the annual gross profit is 24.288 million US dollars,with good economic recovery prospects.