Cobalt is widely used, with about 60% used in batteries. Especially as the cathode material of ternary battery, it can improve the conductivity and rate performance of battery, and provide partial capacity under high voltage. Cobalt mainly exists in the form of associated resources of copper and nickel, and its supply is limited by copper and nickel mining. China is the world’s largest consumer of cobalt, 80% of which is used to make lithium batteries. Cobalt metal can be extracted by using cobalt ore beneficiation process. The following describes the beneficiation process of four common cobalt ores.
1, copper, nickel and cobalt ore dressing process
In copper-nickel-cobalt deposits, the main metallic minerals are copper, cobalt, nickel, etc., the main gangue minerals are quartz, Muscovite, biotite, plagioclase, serpentine, etc., and there are many kinds of sulfide minerals. At the same time, copper, nickel and cobalt are closely related to arsenic minerals, and there are more independent minerals of arsenic.
Copper-nickel-cobalt ore is generally treated by mixed flotation process, so as to obtain highly enriched copper-cobalt-nickel mixed concentrate, which can be priced and sold at the same time, or smelted. It should be noted that this kind of ore contains more gangue minerals that are easy to float, and it is easy to produce secondary slime in the grinding process, which will affect the enrichment of copper-nickel-cobalt concentrate. The flocculation-mixed flotation process can be selected. The copper-nickel-cobalt concentrate with relatively high concentration can be mixed flotation first, and then the cobalt mineral can be separated and extracted by water metallurgy.
2, copper and cobalt ore dressing process
There are two kinds of copper-cobalt deposits, one of which often contains polymetallic minerals such as copper, lead, zinc and silver, and the other contains minerals such as copper, cobalt and uranium. The two kinds of deposits differ in the separation process, most of which are determined according to the differences in the floatability of copper and cobalt minerals, generally including priority flotation process and mixed flotation process.
When the preferential flotation process is used to treat copper-cobalt ore, it is generally used to preferentially flotation copper and then flotation cobalt. By using lime as inhibitor, YK1-11 as copper collector and butyl xanthoxanthate as cobalt collector, copper concentrate and cobalt sulfur concentrate can be obtained respectively.
When using the mixed flotation process to separate copper and cobalt ore, butyl xanthoxanthate can be used as collector and BKNL as regulator for flotation to get copper and cobalt mixed coarse concentrate. In the selection, inhibitor such as sodium silicate and lime is added to inhibit gangue minerals to get copper and cobalt mixed concentrate.
3. Iron and cobalt ore dressing process
The main cobalt-bearing minerals in iron-cobalt deposits are pyrite, pyrrhotite and a small amount of chalcopyrite, etc. The main ganglion minerals are quartz, feldspar, epidote, biotite and chlorite, etc. The components are relatively complex, and cobalt minerals are generally closely associated with iron minerals.
This kind of ore can be treated by flotation method. The sulfide and magnetite can be separated first, and then a small amount of chalcopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite can be separated by flotation method. At the same time, magnetite can be separated by magnetic separation to obtain copper concentrate, cobalt sulfur concentrate and iron concentrate respectively.
4, cobalt ore dressing process
In addition to cobalt, cobalt ore also contains manganese, copper, nickel, iron and other metallic elements. The recyclable part of ore is often dominated by the complex formed by manganese oxide and cobalt oxide. Cobalt minerals have a close symbiotic relationship with manganese minerals, containing more clay, iron slime and limonite.
In terms of beneficiation method, single or combined beneficiation process can be selected for cobalt ore. Single beneficiation methods include gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation, acid leaching, etc., combined beneficiation methods include roasting-flotation method, acid leaching-flotation method, among which acid leaching-flotation method is currently more commonly used for cobalt ore beneficiation.
These are the four common cobalt ores. It is not easy to process them and finally extract cobalt metal. It requires many processes. Xinhai reminds you to choose manufacturers with mineral processing industry qualifications to cooperate, in order to provide you with professional services, avoid waste of resources, and create greater economic benefits.
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