High efficiency cobalt extraction process with reactive magnesium oxide

The efficient cobalt extraction process of activated magnesium oxide involves a method for efficient recovery of cobalt from low-grade cobalt ore, suitable for application in the mining and metallurgical industry.

Cobalt is an important material for manufacturing high-temperature resistant alloys, cemented carbide, catalysts, new energy vehicle batteries and strong magnetic materials, one of the world\’s important strategic mineral resources, as of the end of 2016, the global proven cobalt resources of about 25 million tons, with reserves of 7.2 million tons, of which the sum of reserves of three countries, Congo (DRC), Australia and Cuba, accounts for 69.4% of the world, especially the cobalt reserves of Congo (DRC) In particular, the cobalt reserves of Congo (Kinshasa) are as high as 3.4 million tons, ranking first in the world. China\’s cobalt resource reserves are only 80,000 tons, accounting for 1.1% of the global reserves. Judging from the basic rules of mineral resources consumption, the demand for cobalt will continue to climb, and the constraints of the resource shortage situation will continue to increase. At present, many cobalt mines at home and abroad have already entered the late stage of mining, and the rich and easily-selectable mineral resources are nearly exhausted, but there are still a large amount of low-grade cobalt ore resources that have not yet been developed and utilized. Therefore, it is of great significance how to develop and utilize such low-grade cobalt ore resources in an efficient and economic way to alleviate the outstanding contradiction between supply and demand of high-quality cobalt ore and enhance the guaranteed life of cobalt ore resources.

In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of research work on the recovery of cobalt from cobalt ore, and have also achieved milestone results. With the decreasing global mineral resources and the inherent inadequacy of the existing low-grade cobalt ore treatment process, it is particularly urgent and significant to seek a method for efficient recovery of cobalt from low-grade cobalt ore.

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the existing technology, a new type of activated magnesium oxide high-efficiency cobalt extraction process is studied, which can not only recover cobalt from low-grade cobalt ore efficiently, but also reduce the recovery cost and be easy to implement, providing a broad space and technical support for the development of low-grade cobalt ore. The task of the present invention is accomplished by the following technical solution: a method for efficient recovery of cobalt from low-grade cobalt ore, which uses a combined process including leaching-iron removal-manganese removal-two-stage cobalt sinking process accompanied by self-produced cobalt sinking slag and two-in-one oxidizer to obtain qualified cobalt hydroxide and realize the utilization of low-grade cobalt ore resources.