Abstract
The Nkana Cu-Co mineral sulphide concentrates containing 40 wt.% SiO2 were carbothermically reduced in the presence of CaO by following the equilibrium: MS + CaO + C = M + CaS + CO(g), where M represents the metallic Cu, Co and Fe, over a temperature range of 1073 K – 1323 K. We investigated the magnetic separation of alloy phases into copper-cobalt rich and iron-cobalt rich fractions. The proposed approach appears more energy efficient than melting a mixture which yields a ternary alloy composed of Cu, Co and Fe, and a non-magnetic fraction (CaS, excess CaO and SiO2). The extent of magnetic separation was affected by the temperature and mole ratios of MS/CaO and C/CaO, used for the reduction of mineral concentrate. The reduced and magnetically separated samples were characterised by XRD, SEM-EDX and XRF techniques. The alloy phase contained ~92 wt% of metallic constituents, with remaining 8 wt.% as mixture of CaS and SiO2. The utilisation of this gangue mixture in the process is briefly discussed.
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Hara, Y.R.S., Jha, A. (2015). Energy Efficient Separation of Magnetic Alloy fron the Carbothermic Reduction of NKANA Cu-Co Concentrates. In: Jha, A., et al. Energy Technology 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48220-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48220-0_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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