Recovery of cobalt and nickel by atmospheric leaching of flotation sulfide concentrate from lubin concentrator

An experimental study on leaching of cobalt and nickel from a Lubin (Poland) sulfide flotation copper concentrate with oxygenated sulphuric acid solution in the presence of iron(III) sulfate is presented. The effect of temperature, iron(III) concentration, initial sulphuric acid concentration, oxygen flow rate and chloride ions addition on cobalt and nickel leaching were examined. The obtained results show, that enhancing investigated leaching parameters increases both the rate and leaching recovery of nickel and cobalt. The effect of iron(III) ions concentration is particularly significant. Additionally, a significant correlation between copper and nickel/cobalt leaching recovery was observed. Due to the fine dissemination of nickel and cobalt, they were leached remarkably faster when copper leaching recovery exceeded 90%.