Solvent extraction of zinc, manganese, cobalt and nickel from nickel laterite bacterial leach liquor using sodium salts of TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272

Abstract

The extraction and separation of zinc, manganese, cobalt and nickel from nickel laterite bacteria leach liquor were carried out using sodium salts of TOPS-99 and Cyanex 272 in kerosene. The unwanted metal ions were removed by precipitation method and solvent extraction was used to extract/separate Zn, Mn, Co and Ni. The nickel laterite leach liquor which was obtained from bioleaching of chromite overburden samples contained 3.72 g/L Fe, 2.08 g/L Al, 0.44 g/L Ni, 0.02 g/L Co, 0.13 g/L Mn, 0.14 g/L Zn and 0.22 g/L Cr. From this leach liquor, 100% Fe, 96.98% Al and 70.42% Cr were removed by precipitation with CaCO3 at pH 4.4 followed by precipitation of remaining Al and Cr with 50% ammonia at pH 5.4. After precipitation, the extraction of Zn from the Fe, Al and Cr free leach liquor was carried out with 0.1 mol/L TOPS-99 followed by Mn extraction with 0.04 mol/L NaTOPS-99. The yields of Zn and Mn were 97.77% and 95.63%, respectively. After Mn extraction, cobalt was removed from the leach liquor using 0.0125 mol/L NaCyanex 272 and finally nickel extraction was carried out using 0.12 mol/L NaTOPS-99 with 99.84% yield. The stripping of loaded organic (LO) phases were achieved with dilute H2SO4.