Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Recovery of cobalt, nickel, and copper from manganese nodules by reduction roasting and smelting was thermodynamically investigated. Manganese nodules are dried under air atmosphere and reduced with carbon as a reductant under nitrogen atmosphere. The nodules were then melted at 1693 K for 1 hr under nitrogen atmosphere. The melting products were CaO-MnO-SiO2 slag and Fe-Cu-Co-Ni alloy. From the experimental results, it was found that the recovery of cobalt, nickel, and copper increased with the manganese content in the product alloy. That is the reason manganese can oxidize the easiest among metal components in the product alloy. Also, an experimental equation to calculate necessary amount of carbon as the reductant for recovering up to 90.0 % for cobalt, nickel, and copper respectively in Fe-Cu-Co-Ni alloy containing below 5.0 wt% Mn from the nodules was obtained as follows;