Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

In order to recover the valuable metals Ni, Co and Cd in the waste water of cobalt refining raffinate and make the concentration of heavy metal ions reach the discharge standard, an H-type IDA chelating resin D854 resin was used to remove the heavy metals in the raffinate after precipitation, and the heavy metal adsorption and regeneration performance were compared with the Na-type D851 resin commonly used in the existing industry. The results showed that compared with D851 resin, H-type D854 resin had larger adsorption capacity of heavy metals, and the adsorption priority was Ni²⁺＞ Co²⁺＞ Cd²⁺. The adsorption capacity of H-type D854 resin is not easily affected by the pH change of the original solution, and the adsorption effect was stable in the range of pH 4 ~ 8. The resin could be effectively eluted by 5BV H2SO4 with mass fraction of 10%, and the elution order of heavy metals was Cd²⁺, Co²⁺ and Ni²⁺. The adsorption capacity of the regenerated H-type D854 resin can still reach more than 90% of the first time after three times of reuse, and the removal effect of heavy metals was stable. The H-type D854 resin has a wide pH range, long service life, easy desorption, no alkali transformation, and short regeneration time, which greatly improves the treatment efficiency of raffinate wastewater.