Research on Recovery of Valuable Metals from Cobalt-Rich Crust Using Carbon as a Reduction Agent during the Acid Baking Process

Abstract

Cobalt-rich crust is a seabed metal mineral resource that is different from oceanic polymetallic nodules. Based on the higher Co content than polymetallic nodules, the commercial value of cobalt-rich crust may be better than that of polymetallic nodules. Due to the special distribution of valuable metals, commercial implementation is always limited. Herein, a novel process is proposed to efficiently and, in an eco-friendly way, recycle valuable metals from cobalt-rich crust. The results indicate that carbon could promote the decomposition of manganite in the cobalt-rich crust during the acid baking process, and the leaching ratio of Mn could increase by 50% when carbon is added during acid baking. In addition, it can be found that the promotion of carbon for Co is stronger at low sulfuric acid consumption than that at high sulfuric acid consumption; however, there is no promotion of carbon for leaching Ni and Cu during the acid baking process. The leaching ratio of Ni, Co, Cu, Mn, and Fe reached 98.59%, 91.62%, 93.81%, 41.27%, and 26.94%, respectively, when the mass ratio of the sulfuric acid and cobalt-rich crust was 0.567, the mass ratio of the carbon and cobalt-rich crust was 0.1, the temperature was 200 °C and the time was 240 min. This research could provide an alternative economic process for recycling valuable metals from cobalt-rich crusts.

Efficient separation and recovery of Co and Ni from ammonium sulfate roasting‐water leaching solutions of oceanic cobalt‐rich crusts by sulfide precipitation and P507–Cyanex 272 synergistic extraction

“…Many studies have been performed on the extraction of valuable metals from cobalt‐rich crusts, and the extraction methods can be mainly classified into wet reduction leaching 8–12 and fire reduction leaching 13–17 . Wet reduction leaching is the simultaneous reduction of high‐value manganese oxides in cobalt‐rich crusts and the extraction of valuable metals by introducing various reducing agents into the ore slurry.…”

“…6 Many studies have been performed on the extraction of valuable metals from cobalt-rich crusts, and the extraction methods can be mainly classified into wet reduction leaching [8][9][10][11][12] and fire reduction leaching. [13][14][15][16][17] Wet reduction leaching is the simultaneous reduction of high-value manganese oxides in cobalt-rich crusts and the extraction of valuable metals by introducing various reducing agents into the ore slurry. In fire reduction leaching, cobalt-rich crusts are mixed with reducing agents and then roasted together to destroy the structure of ferromanganese oxides, and then, the valuable metal is extracted by wet leaching.…”