Abstract
A direct smelting process has been developed at CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, to recover all four valuable metals such as Ni, Co, Cu and Mn. Initially sea nodules containing 1.1% Cu, 1.15% Ni, 0.76% Co, 22.3% Mn, 5.5% Fe and 13.1% SiO2 was smelted in presence of coke to produce an alloy rich in Ni, Co, Cu and Fe. Various parameters such as amount of coke, quartz, smelting temperature and holding time etc. were optimized on different scale between 0.5–20 kg scale. Under optimized condition, the alloy of composition: 16.% Cu, 18.4% Ni, 1.2% Co 57.0%) Fe and 3.6% Mn was produced on 20 kg scale using 7% coke with more than 90% metal recovery. The process was further up-scaled to 250 kg where similar recovery was achieved with 8% coke and 1 h holding time. The alloy and slag was further processed to recover different value added products.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
R.P. Das, and S. Anand, 1997, “Aqueous reduction of polymetallic nodule for metal extraction.” In: Proceedings of the Second Ocean Mining Symposium. International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE), Seoul: Korea, 1997, 165–171.
D. Mishra, R.R. Srivastava, K.K. Sahu, T.B. Singh and R.K. Jana, “Leaching of roast-reduced manganese nodules in NH3-(NH4)2CO3 medium,” Hydrometallurgy, 109(3–4). (2011), 215–220.
R. Sridhar, J.S. Warner, M.C.E. Bell, 1977, U.S Patent no 4049438.
S. Agarwal, K.K. Sahu, R.K. Jana, S.P. Mehrotra, 2009, Proceedings of the Eighth ISOPE Ocean Mining Symposium, (India), 2009, 131–136.
A.J. Monhemius, “The extractive metallurgy of deep sea manganese nodule, In Topics in non ferrous extractive metallurgy”, R. Burkin Eds. Society of chemical industry, (London) 1980, 42.
F. Habashi, Handbook of Extractive Metallurgy, Volume 1, Part II, p. 421.
H.S. Ray, R. Sridhar, and K.P. Abraham, Extraction of Nonferrous Metals, Affiliated East-West press Pvt Ltd. (India), 1985, 19.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sahu, K.K. et al. (2013). Nickel, Cobalt and Copper Recovery from Sea Nodules by Direct Smelting Process. In: Battle, T., et al. Ni-Co 2013. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48147-0_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48147-0_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48581-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48147-0
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)