Recovery of cobalt
AssigneeGTE Products Corporation
InventorsRichard A. Scheithauer, Michael J. Miller, Clarence D. Vanderpool
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process is disclosed for recovering cobalt in a relatively pure form from an impure cobalt bearing material. The process involves digesting the material in hydrochloric acid to form a solution essentially all of the cobalt and some impurities and insoluble material containing the remainder of the impurities, separating the solution from the insolubles, adding an oxalate producing compound in an amount sufficient to subsequently convert essentially all of the cobalt to cobalt oxalate to the solution, adjusting the pH of the oxalate treated solution to from about 1.5 to about 2.0 with a base to precipitate the cobalt, and finally separating the precipitate from the resulting mother liquor.
Claims7
A process for recovering cobalt from an impure cobalt bearing material, said material having a composition of in percent by weight from about 10% to about 40% chromium, from about 10% to about 40% nickel, from about 5% to about 20% iron, from about 20% to about 60% tungsten, from about 0% to about 1% silicon, and the balance cobalt, said process comprising:
- (a) digesting said material in hydrochroric acid to form a solution containing essentially all of the cobalt values and the impurities of chromium nickel and iron and insoluble material containing the impurities of tungsten and silicon;
- (b) separating said solution from said insoluble material;
- (c) adding to said solution an oxalate producing compound in an amount sufficient to subsequently convert essentially all of the cobalt to cobalt oxalate;
- (d) adjusting the pH of the resulting oxalate treated solution with a base to from about 1.5 to about 2.0 to form a first precipitate which contains essentially all of the cobalt as cobalt oxalate and nickel impurities and a first mother liquor containing essentially all of the iron and chromium impurities of the solution;
- and
- (e) separating said first precipitate from said first mother liquor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.