Separation of copper and cobalt-nickel sulphide concentrates during processing of manganese deep ocean nodules

摘要

Controlled sulphide precipitation was examined in this study for the recovery of copper and nickel-cobalt concentrates from liquors originating from leaching manganese deep ocean nodules in FeSO_4-H_2SO_4-H_2O solutions. The metal ions studied include Co~(2+), Cu~(2+), Fe~(2+), Ni~(2+), Mn~(2+) and Zn~(2+). Promising results were obtained when copper and nickel-cobalt concentrates were precipitated with 5.5 percent solution of (NH_4)_2S. This was added at optimised flow rate of 0.15 g S~(2-)7min per 1 L of processed solution at the laboratory temperature, pH=1.0 (copper precipitation) and pH=3.0 (nickel-cobalt precipitation).