China Nonferrous Metallurgy

Cobalt matte is one of the commonly used raw materials for cobalt smelting, which is rich in components such as cobalt, copper, and iron. Its chemical properties are stable, and conventional leaching methods cannot effectively dissolve valuable metals. Moreover, its hardness is high, making it difficult to treat abrasives. This article takes imported cobalt matte particles as the research object, and systematically examines the feasibility of the cobalt matte chlorine acid leaching treatment process from the aspects of grinding equipment selection, chloride leaching test, verification test, and industrial test. The main conclusions are as follows: vibration abrasive can effectively treat cobalt matte particles with high hardness, and the discharge particle size of cobalt matte after abrasive treatment is 90% below 150μm, with a power consumption of 1.2kg/kW·h; Under the conditions of a liquid solid mass ratio of 6∶1 between 15% hydrochloric acid and cobalt matte, a mixing speed of 60r/min, a reaction temperature of 95℃, a reaction time of 8 hours, and the simultaneous introduction of chlorine gas, the leaching rates of copper and cobalt in cobalt matte reached over 90%, and the leaching rate of iron reached over 70%; In industrial experiments, the abrasive and leaching process were optimized, and the abrasive power consumption was reduced to 4kg/kW·h. The leaching rates of copper, cobalt, and iron all reached over 98%, with a significant improvement in the effect. After removing iron and copper by the goethite method, the leaching solution can obtain a cobalt rich solution, and the amount of leaching residue is small, which can be well applied in industrial production.