Anglovaal Mining Limited (Avmin) is increasing
production at the Chambishi Metals Cobalt Plant in Zambia through its
COSAC Project. The increase in cobalt and copper production will
increase the nickel input to the cobalt purification circuit. In order
to maintain electrowon cobalt metal quality, it is therefore necessary
to remove this nickel from the cobalt advance electrolyte.
Laboratory testwork showed that expansion of the existing fixed bed
nickel ion exchange operation with one additional column could not
guarantee the requirements for the maximum allowable nickel
concentration in the cobalt electrolyte. The addition of more than one
column would have been capital intensive and not feasible from an
economic point of view, and therefore, it was decided to evaluate
continuous nickel ion exchange using ISEP® Carousel technology. An
initial analysis showed that this approach was both technically and
economically the most attractive.
This paper describes the development by Hatch Africa of the continuous
nickel removal ion exchange process that was proposed to Avmin and
implemented at the Chambishi Metals Cobalt Plant, including pilot
scale testwork which was carried out on site in order to obtain the
required data for the detailed design of the
system.
Authors: C. Bailey, G.B. Harris,
R. Kuyvenhoven and J. du Plessis, Hatch Africa, Private Bag X20, Gallo
Manor, 2052 South Africa.
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