Separation of copper and cobalt-nickel sulphide concentrates during processing of manganese deep ocean nodules

Controlled sulphide precipitation was examined in this study for the recovery of copper and nickel-cobalt concentrates from liquors originating from leaching manganese deep ocean nodules in FeSO4-H2SO4-H2O solutions. The metal ions studied include Co2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Ni2+, Mn2+ and Zn2+. Promising results were obtained when copper and nickel-cobalt concentrates were precipitated with 5.5% solution of (NH4)2S. This was added at optimised flow rate of 0.15 g S2−/min per 1 L of processed solution at the laboratory temperature, pH=1.0 (copper precipitation) and pH=3.0 (nickel-cobalt precipitation).