B. Mwakila,1 R. Silwamba,1 G. Miller,2 and GC Chisakuta3 1Nkana
Transcription
B. Mwakila,1 R. Silwamba,1 G. Miller,2 and GC Chisakuta3 1Nkana
IMPROVEMENT IN COPPER AND COBALT PRODUCTION DUE TO INCLUSION OF SOLVENT EXTRACTION OF COPPER AT MOPANI COPPER MINES PLC’S NKANA COBALT RLE PLANT. B. Mwakila,1 R. Silwamba,1 G. Miller,2 and G. C. Chisakuta3 1 Nkana RLE Cobalt Plant, Mopani Copper Mines Plc, Box 22000, Kitwe, Zambia. 2Miller Metallurgical Services, Australia. 3Cognis Corporation, Chingola, Zambia. Corresponding author email address: [email protected] ABSTRACT Nkana Cobalt Plant Roast-Leach-Electrowin produces cobalt from cobalt concentrates from Nkana Concentrator by roasting to convert insoluble metal sulphides into soluble sulphates and oxides. The soluble sulphates and oxides (calcine) are then leached, getting the cobalt into solution along with copper and other impurities. Up until December 2006, advance electrolyte was routed to the copper tankhouse for electrowinning and electrostripping of copper as a first step in impurity removal. Stripped liquor was then sent to a cobalt purification circuit for classical precipitation by automated pH control. Theis process has now been modified to include copper solvent extraction to first remove copper from calcine leach solution. This paper discusses how inclusion of Solvent Extraction has resulted in increased productivity. INTRODUCTION Nkana Cobalt Plant Roast-Leach-Electrowin (RLE) was commissioned in 1982 to produce cobalt as a by-product of a copper producing metallurgical complex, receiving its cobalt concentrates from Nkana Concentrator [1]. The cobalt is associated with a copper ore as a carrolite. Resultant cobalt concentrate has the following typical assay grades: 1.6 % Cobalt, 9.0% Copper, and 21.0% Sulphur When the plant was designed in the 1980’s, solvent extraction technology was not immediately adopted as a means of copper impurity separation because most of the copper solvent extraction reagents at that time were mainly meant for very dilute solutions (max 0.5-7 gpl Cu in PLS) and were quite sensitive to pH [2]. Separation of copper from the cobalt bearing solution thus continued to be via electrochemical means. Copper bearing cobalt solution was initially sent to an electrowinning copper tank house where copper was subjected to electrowoninning, then electrostrippeding. Copper produced from these processes was treated as scrap copper suitable for doping in converters at the smelter. Resultant stripped solution, relatively free of copper, was routed to the purification circuit, where classical pH precipitation methods are, up to today, used to remove other impurities from the cobalt solution. The process of electrowinning and electrostripping had posed serious production constraints, as it required meticulous blends to be prepared with a Copper to Cobalt ratio of 4:1 in the roaster feed. There was also a limit placed on the resultant copper advance electrolyte to the electrowinning tank house. Average acceptable concentrations were 20 – 25 gpl Cu. Concentrations above these were a serious process constraint. To remedy this, solvent extraction was reexaminedlooked at. With development of solvent extraction technology, stronger and more powerful reagents capable of handling very high copper concentrations in the region of 25-30 gpl Cu in pregnant liquor solution had become available. After pilot plant trials, the circuit was successfully modified to include copper solvent extraction as a first step in impurity removal, and a solvent extraction plant was commissioned in January 2007. PROCESS DESCRIPTION OF MODIFIED CIRCUIT Copper SX was included between calcine leach and iron removal. To remove copper to the desirable level, the copper solvent extraction plant was designed with a two stage extraction circuit, namely Primary and Secondary extraction [3]. The configuration used is shown in Figure 1, whileand Table 1 shows typical design parameters. Ferric Thickener Overflow Final Raffinate Primary Raffinate PLS E4 E1 E2 E5 E3 Stripped Organic Loaded Organic Advance S1 S2 Spent Formatted: Justified, Indent: First line: 1.27 cm Figure 1. Configuration of the SX circuit at Nkana RLE Cobalt Plant Formatted: Left Table 1. Design parameters of the SX at Nkana RLE Cobalt Plant Solution PLS Primary Raffinate Ferric Thickener O/F Loaded Organic Parameter Cu tenor (g/L) Co tenor (g/L) Flow (m3/h) pH Recovery (%) Cu tenor (g/L) Co tenor (g/L) Flow (m3/h) pH Recovery (%) LIX 984N conc. (%v/v) Flow (m3/h) Value 25.0 10.0 127 0.7 89 2.7 9.5 60 3.5 97 23 350 Primary Solvent Extraction Primary solvent extraction comprises three extraction mixers-settlers (E1, E2, and E3) that lower the concentration of copper in calcine leach solution (CLS) from 25 gpl Cu down to 1 gpl Cu. The resulting primary raffinate is pumped back to the leaching circuit, and about 60 m3/hr, is bled off to Ferric cascade for iron removal; by lime precipitation method. The resulting ferric thickener overflow from iron removal is pumped back to the secondary solvent extraction. Secondary Solvent Extraction There are two smaller mixer-settlers (E4 and E5) that make up the secondary extraction circuit. Ferric thickener overflow from iron precipitation enters E4 and exits E5 after residue copper from the primary raffinate has been recovered. Final raffinate from E5 is pumped to the cobalt purification circuit where classical pH precipitation techniques are employed to remove other impurities such as zinc in the clean-up cascade circuit. The cobalt purification circuit produces an advance electrolyte for cobalt electrowinning. Stripping of Loaded Organic After loading copper from cobalt solution in secondary extraction, and from calcine leach solution in primary extraction, the organic is stripped in two stages (S1 and S2) to produce an advance electrolyte that feeds the copper electrowinning tankhouse. In Comment [G1]: 1.0 g/L in the text total, the solvent extraction plant has a design capacity to transfer 20,000 tonnes of copper per annum. The process modification is shown in Figure 2 along with the original circuit. ORIGINAL CIRCUIT MODIFIED CIRCUIT Roaster Roaster Leaching Copper Electrowinning Scrap Cu Leaching LME Grade A Copper Solvent Extraction Cu Tank House Copper Electrostripping Ferric Cascade Ferric Cascade Clean-up II Cascade Clean-up II Cascade Hydroxide Cascade Hydroxide Cascade Resolution Cascade Resolution Cascade Solution Classification Cobalt Electrowinning pH based precipitation Cobalt Metal Solution Classification Cobalt Electrowinning Figure 2. Comparison of the original and the modified circuits DISCUSSION Nkana Cobalt Plant has derived significant improvements in productivity following this circuit modification. The constraint placed on roaster blend to limit copper input to the circuit has been removed, as copper tank house now operates a separate entity that picks up copper, not directly from CLS, but from solvent extraction to produce LME grade A copper. Figure 3 shows copper input, copper production as well as cobalt metal production, both before and after the modification. 2000 500 Cu Production 1600 Tonnes Cu 450 Cu Input 400 Co Production 1400 350 1200 300 1000 250 800 200 600 150 400 100 200 50 '07 ay M ar '07 M '07 Ja n '06 v 06 No Se p' '06 Ju l '06 ay M ar '06 0 M Ja n '06 0 Tonnes Co 1800 Month Figure 3. Historic Trends of Copper/Cobalt input and production Copper input into the circuit and corresponding production has gone up. Copper production has increase from an average 800 tonnes of copper per month to 1,300 tonnes. Similarly, cobalt production at an average of 160 tonnes per month is above the previous average of 140 tonnes. Production of LME grade copper from electrowinning has reduced costs and has freed up smelter capacity. CONCLUSION Use of solvent extraction of copper to remove copper as an impurity from cobalt solution while producing LME grade copper has been successfully implemented at Nkana Cobalt plant. Major benefits of this have been (i) reduction of roaster constraint, which means higher copper input than before can now be handleds than before, (ii) double handling of scrap copper from electrowinning and electrostripping has been eliminated, and (iii) a consistent production of cobalt can be sustained. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank Mopani Copper Mines Plc, especially Management and Staff at Nkana Cobalt Plant, for their permission and support in writing this paper. Our special thanks also go to Shankar Aburi Rao for the proof reading the manuscript and offering invaluable critique to the technical content of the presentation. REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. J. Aird, R. S. Celmer and A. V. May, “New Cobalt Production from R.C.M.’s Chambishi Roast-Leach-Electrowin Process,” Mining Magazine, 320-323 (October 1980). Teh C. Lo, Malcom H I Baird and Carl Hanson, Handbook of Solvent Extraction, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1985; pp. 650-657. G. M. Miller and A. Nisbett, “Decreasing Operating Costs and Soluble Loss in Copper Hydrometallurgy With Use of Innovative Solvent Extraction Circuits,” First Extractive Metallurgy Operator’s Conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 2005.