Recovery of Valuable Metals from Sea Nodules in Presence of Pyrite and Sulphur

Mehta, K D and Pandey, B D and Premchand, and Mankhand, T R (2000) Recovery of Valuable Metals from Sea Nodules in Presence of Pyrite and Sulphur. In: International Symposium on Processing of fines - Vol.2, 2000, NML Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur.

[img]PDF
Restricted to NML users only. Others may use ->

2276Kb

Abstract

The biodissolution of copper, nickel and cobalt front the Indian Ocean manganese nodules has been investigated in presence of pyrite and elemental sulphur using Thioba-cillus ferrooxidans(Tf) and Thiobacillus thiooxidans (Tt) as the microorganisms. The leaching of manganese nodules proceeds with reduction of Mn4+ to Mn2+ by ferrous ions generated from pyrite and H2SO3, from that of sulphur by bacterial action. Breaking the lattice structure of manganese and iron based minerals like todorokite, birne-ssite, lithiophorite and goethite by chemico-bacterial action, releases the valuable metals such as copper; nickel and cobalt thereby dissolving them in the aqueous solution. Recovery of the metals was highest for finer size (-75,um) fraction of the nodules. For an instance, in presence of 10% pyrite at 5% pulp density and pH 2.0, 97% Cu, 85%a Ni, and 55% Co were leached in 50 days. With the particle size of -300 +200Um, the metal recoveries at 30°C were 81% Cu, 67% Ni and 39% Co in 50 days tune in presence of pyrite. Under these conditions 61% Cu, 58% Ni and 26% Co diss- olution was observed in presence of sulphur Raising the temperature from 20-35°C increased the metal recovery.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Official URL/DOI:http://eprints.nmlindia.org/2929
Uncontrolled Keywords:Sea nodules, Biorecovery, Pyrite
Divisions:Mineral Processing
ID Code:2929
Deposited By:Sahu A K
Deposited On:02 Jun 2011 12:08
Last Modified:15 Nov 2011 10:46
Related URLs:

Repository Staff Only: item control page