Systems and methods for selective proximity cobalt recovery

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a method comprising leaching a cobalt bearing material to form a slurry, filtering the slurry to yield solids and a cobalt bearing liquid phase, and forwarding the solids to a second leaching operation.

1 . A method comprising:
 leaching a cobalt bearing material to form a slurry;   filtering the slurry to yield solids and a cobalt bearing liquid phase; and   forwarding the solids to a second leaching operation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second leaching operation is a copper leaching operation. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the cobalt bearing material comprises cobalt hydroxide. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the cobalt hydroxide is formed by precipitating cobalt II with magnesia. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the cobalt hydroxide is formed by precipitating cobalt II with lime. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the leaching comprises addition of sulfur dioxide. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 performing a solution extraction of the cobalt bearing liquid phase to yield a purified cobalt bearing liquid phase;   subjecting the purified cobalt bearing liquid phase to a copper ion exchange using a copper selective ion exchange resin.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising purging the copper selective ion exchange resin of copper with an elution liquid. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , recycling the elution liquid to a copper leaching operation. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising electrowinning cobalt metal from a first portion of the purified cobalt bearing liquid phase. 
     
     
         11 . A method comprising:
 adding magnesia to a cobalt bearing material to form a first slurry;   separating the first slurry into a saleable solid product and a liquid phase;   adding lime to the liquid phase to form a second slurry; and   separating the second slurry into a solid product and a liquid phase.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising leaching a portion of the saleable solid product and a portion of the solid product to form a leached slurry. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 filtering the leached slurry to yield a cobalt bearing liquid phase;   bleeding a first portion of the cobalt bearing liquid phase to a cobalt gypsum precipitation process.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 performing a solution extraction of a second portion of the cobalt bearing liquid phase to yield a purified cobalt bearing liquid phase;   precipitating cobalt gypsum by adding lime to a first portion of the purified cobalt bearing liquid phase in the cobalt gypsum precipitation process.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising recycling the cobalt gypsum to the leaching. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising subjecting a second portion of the purified cobalt bearing liquid phase to an additional conditioning step to yield a conditioned cobalt bearing liquid. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising electrowinning cobalt metal from a first portion of the conditioned cobalt bearing liquid. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the electrowinning comprises a bagged anode process. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the electrowinning comprises a free anode process. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the electrowinning comprises depositing cobalt metal rounds on a masked cathode.