Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

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Minerals Engineering
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Production of cobalt from copper-cobalt ores on the African Copperbelt – An T

overview
⁎
F.K. Crundwella, , N.B. du Preezb, B.D.H. Knightsb
a
Crundwell Metallurgy Limited, London, United Kingdom
b
CM Solutions (Pty) Ltd, Pinelands Office Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The development of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries has increased the
Copper demand for cobalt from the African Copperbelt that traverses the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and
Cobalt Zambia. This increased demand has enabled the modernization of the process technology used across the region,
Flotation resulting in the move from direct electrowinning of copper to solvent extraction-electrowinning. With this
Precipitation
change has come a variety of technical challenges in the recovery of cobalt from these sources. The expansion
Roasting
Smelting
markets for cobalt has resulted in a switch in the form of cobalt produced at the mine site, from metal cathode to
cobalt hydroxide. In this paper, we provide an overview the processes currently used to produce cobalt from
these copper-cobalt ores. The challenges for the technology in the context of the evolving markets for cobalt are
highlighted.

1. Introduction
The African Copperbelt, or colloquially “the Copperbelt”, is the
largest sediment-host copper province in the world. It is estimated that
the Copperbelt contains 5 billion tonnes of ore containing 3.3% copper,
yielding 185 million tonnes of copper. Industrial-scale mining on the
Copperbelt has taken place for over a century. Cobalt is produced as a
by-product of this copper mining. However, the increasing demand for
energy storage and electric vehicles has increased the demand for co-
balt (Azevedo et al., 2018), moving the status of cobalt from speciality
metal to essential metal as the world’s energy sources change.
The global production of cobalt has increased over the period
2011–2018, as shown in Fig. 2. The data given in Fig. 3 indicates that
the increase in global production has been sourced almost entirely from
the DRC, which in 2018 produced about 60% of the world’s cobalt (see
Fig. 3). This concentration of primary cobalt production in the DRC is
mirrored by the concentration of refinery production in China, where
about 60% of refinery production occurs (Azevedo et al., 2018; Shedd,
2019).
The price history of cobalt is shown in Fig. 4. Because cobalt is
produced as a by-product of either nickel or copper production
(Crundwell et al. 2011), the price of cobalt exhibits the volatility as-
sociated with by-product commodities. In 2018, the price spiked above
90,000 USD/t but has since dropped. Such spikes in price are not an
uncommon experience, with price peaks in 1980, 1995, 2008 and 2018.
The dominance of the DRC in terms of total production and new
production is clear from the data shown in Figs. 2 and 3. This dom-
inance is reflected in the biggest cobalt-producing mines and me-
tallurgical operations, as shown in Table 1. All the current top produ-
cers are from the DRC. Some of these producers, like Mutanda Mining
and Chambishi Metals, are temporarily closed, either for development
or for business reasons.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the me-
tallurgical methods used for separating cobalt and copper as currently
practised on the African Copperbelt (see Fig. 1), the largest source of
cobalt. Many of these mines have been in existence for decades. How-
ever, the processes used and the metallurgy employed have evolved
with changes in the technology, market demand and societal pressures.
Several other reviews have been published but they are not focused on
the current industrial practice of the extractive metallurgy of cobalt.
Instead, these reviews are focused on possible options for future de-
velopment (Sole et al., 2019), on only the mineral processing (Shengo
et al., 2019), or on design considerations (Miller, 2009; Fisher and
Treadgold, 2009; Fisher, 2011). Other reviews, such as Rumbu (2016),
Prasad (1989) and Crundwell et al. (2011) are either too broad or re-
quire updating. In this work, the focus is on the techniques of extractive
metallurgy that are currently used on the African Copperbelt to produce
cobalt products.

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: frank@c-metallurgy.co.uk (F.K. Crundwell).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2020.106450
Received 18 February 2020; Received in revised form 11 May 2020; Accepted 12 May 2020
0892-6875/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 1. The copper and cobalt mines and deposits of the African Copperbelt.

Fig. 2. Production of cobalt. (Shedd, 2019; Cobalt Institute, 2020). (Note that data reported by the Cobalt Institute is about 25% lower than that reported by USGS.)

There are two factors that have a bearing on the choice of products
from the mine and hence the extractive metallurgy employed. The first
influence is the requirements of manufacturers who use cobalt. In the
next section, the supply chain to various cobalt products is discussed.
The second influence is the mineralogy of the ore mined. This aspect is
discussed after the supply chain. Following these preliminary topics, the
production of cobalt from the region is discussed, after which an
overview of metallurgical processes is given. Following this overview,
each of the relevant process areas, or unit operations, is discussed in
further detail.
2. The supply chain from mine to consumer products
Cobalt is used in superalloys, hard metals, pigments, catalysts,
magnets, tyre adhesives, wear-resistant coatings, and lithium-ion bat-
teries. The supply chain for cobalt from mining to final product is
shown in Fig. 5. In our assessment of cobalt metallurgical facilities, the
processing of copper and cobalt has been divided into the hydro-
metallurgy refinery, which produces copper cathode and partially-
purified cobalt hydroxide, and the metal refinery, which re-dissolves
the cobalt hydroxide, purifies it, and produces cobalt cathode. This
conceptual split has become necessary because of the choice by most
mines in the DRC to export cobalt hydroxide from the hydro-
metallurgical refinery rather than to purify it further.
The mines can produce cobalt either as metal (> 99.3% purity) or
as precipitated salts. The intermediate products, such as cobalt hydro-
xide, must be further refined for chemical use. These chemical re-
fineries are not necessarily at the mine site but are frequently operated

2
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
Fig. 3. Countries of origin of primary cobalt (Shedd, 2019).
within the mine supply infrastructure. For example, cobalt hydroxide
from Freeport’s Tenke Fungurume mine was refined at their facility in
Kokkola, Finland (note that Freeport has recently divested of both op-
erations) to produce cobalt metal and cobalt chemicals.
Chemical refineries produce cobalt salts, such as chlorides and
sulphates, which are used in a variety of markets, such as pigments,
adhesives, agriculture, amongst others.
For battery use, cobalt chlorides and sulphates are converted to
cobalt oxide (Co3O4) and nickel–cobalt-manganese hydroxide. These
are used to produce the cathode materials for Li-ion batteries, either
LiCoO2 or Li(NiCoMn)O2. Some specifications for these chemical pro-
ducts are given in Table 2. (These specifications should be compared
with those of cobalt cathode, given later in this paper.) The details of
the production of battery materials can be obtained from Nakamura
et al. (2000).
3. Mineralogy of cobalt in the copperbelt
The value-bearing minerals are divided into two categories com-
monly used in the copper industry: “sulphide” and “oxide”. On the
Copperbelt, the term “oxide” must be interpreted as meaning “non-
sulphide”, since the minerals referred to are seldom true oxides, but are
mainly carbonates and hydroxides.
The principal sulphide ore minerals chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), bornite
(Cu5FeS4) and carrollite (CuCo2S4) are mainly found in dolomites and
shales in Congo, and shales and sandstones in Zambia.
Fig. 5 shows photographs of these minerals. Chalcocite (Cu2S) and
covellite (CuS) are also present. Cobalt might also occur as linnaeite
(Co3S4) and catteirite (CoS2), a mineral that generally occurs in solid
solution with pyrite (referred to as cobaltiferous pyrite).
The principal oxide minerals are malachite, Cu(OH)2.CuCO3, and
heterogenite, CoOOH. Minerals that are identified as “heterogenite”
might be either “true” heterogenite with the chemical formula CoOOH,
or asbolane with the chemical formula (Ni,Co)2-xMn(O,OH)4·nH2O
(Vanbrabant et al., 2013). Heterogenite, shown in Fig. 6, and asbolane
are non-crystalline, which makes them difficult to distinguish using X-
ray diffraction. Other oxide cobalt minerals that are found are kolwe-
zite, CoCuCO3(OH)2, and cobalt-bearing manganous wad.
Differences exist between in the Zambian and DRC parts of the
Copperbelt. The ratio of copper-to-cobalt is between 6 and 20 to 1, with
the ores from the DRC richer in cobalt than those from Zambia. The
minerals from which cobalt is extracted in Zambia tend to be more
sulphide in nature, while those extracted in the DRC are more oxide in
3
Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450
nature. Of course, this is a statement of the current situation, which
might change as the mines of the DRC extend deeper into the less
weathered parts of the orebodies.
The extraction technologies used for the separation of copper and
cobalt are dependent on the mineralogy of the ores. Sulphide ores can
be recovered by flotation, whereas leaching and solvent extraction is
used for oxides ores. The major producers from the DRC have over the
last 15 years processed the oxidised zones by leaching. However, as
these oxidised zones are depleted, the processing strategies will have to
be adjusted to accommodate the nature of the ore.
4. An overview of the extractive metallurgy employed
The flowsheets currently producing cobalt fall into one of three
generic classes, which are illustrated in Fig. 7. These classes are (i) the
hydrometallurgical treatment of mined ore (referred to as ‘whole ore’)
to produce cobalt hydroxide; (ii) the roasting of flotation concentrate
followed hydrometallurgical refining to cobalt metal; and (iii) the
smelting of flotation concentrate to produce a cobalt alloy, referred to
as a white alloy or alliage blanc. In addition to these three products
(hydroxide, cathode and alloy), flotation concentrates may be sold as a
final product.
The first generic flowsheet, in which the mined ore is treated hy-
drometallurgically to produce copper cathode and cobalt hydroxide, is
currently the most common configuration used for cobalt. It is used at
Ruashi, Metalkol, Mutanda, Tenke Fungurumi and the other operations
in the DRC that produce cobalt hydroxide.
The specifications for cobalt hydroxide from large-scale mining are
Co > 30%, Mn < 6.5%, Mg < 6.5%, S < 5%, Cd < 0.01%, and
limited radioactivity so that it is suitable for export (Fastmarkets,
2020). Typical values of dried hydroxide product, given in Table 3, are
usually well within these specifications. Payment terms for cobalt hy-
droxide are opaque, with payables (CIF China) ranging between 59 and
70% of the metal price (Fastmarkets, 2020).
This flowsheet is relatively new, being the preferred option for the
new production built over the last 15 years. It is born of the lithium-ion
battery market, where cobalt metal is not required. Because it is unu-
sual for mining companies to accept a discount of 35% of the contained
metal value together with the increased transport costs of hydroxide
compared with metal, there might be a move by DRC-based companies
to produce higher purity cobalt products that capture more of the value.
A schematic diagram of the Ruashi process is given in Fig. 8. The
primary separation of copper and cobalt is effected by copper solvent
extraction. At Ruashi, and many other plants in the DRC, solvent ex-
traction is configured into a high-grade/low-grade circuit, a common
SX configuration developed specifically for the Copperbelt. The con-
centration of copper in the raffinate from the low-grade SX step is less
than250 mg/L, and in some cases lower than this. A bleed from the
raffinate forms the feed to cobalt plant, in which the solution is purified
by iron removal and cobalt is recovered by precipitation as a hydroxide.
Several additional purification steps, which are discussed in later sec-
tions in this paper, are implemented at other operations.
The leaching step at the front-end of the process is undertaken at-
mospherically, which limits this flowsheet to the “oxide” ores.
However, if the atmospheric leaching step is replaced with pressure
oxidation, sulphide ores can be treated.
The second generic flowsheet starts with the flotation of copper and
cobalt minerals. The concentrate is then roasted to a calcine, which is
then treated hydrometallurgically in a manner similar to the first
flowsheet. The product of the hydrometallurgical step, cobalt hydro-
xide, forms the feed to the cobalt metal refinery, where it is re-dis-
solved, the solution purified (iron, copper nickel and zinc removal), and
cobalt metal is electrowon as cathode. The grades required by the Metal
Bulletin for cobalt cathode are given in Table 4.
This generic type of flowsheet is used at Chambishi Metals, whose
flowsheet is shown in Fig. 9. The roasting step allows the plant to treat
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 4. The price of cobalt from 1970 to Dec 2019, showing the volatility associated with its status as by-product commodity. Metal Bulletin daily spot prices from
Investing.com (2020).

Table 1
Top cobalt producers on the African Copperbelt.
Country Owner Company in country Mine Type of process Production/Capacity Cobalt Product

Co Cu

DRC
1‡ Glencore Mutanda Mining Mutanda SX/EW 27,000 200,000 Hydroxide
2 Glencore Kamoto Copper Company Kamoto (KOV, KTO) Roast, SX/EW 16,100 240,000 Hydroxide
3 China Molybdenum Tenke Fungurume Mining Tenke Fungurume SX/EW 15,100 220,000 Hydroxide
4 ERG Metalkol Roan Tailings SX-EW 77,000 14,000 Hydroxide
5 Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Congo Dongfang Mining Luiswishi Smelter 10,000 30,000 Alloy
6 CNMC Somidez Deziwa SX/EW 8000 80,000 Hydroxide
7 Jinchuan Group Ruashi Mining Ruashi SX/EW 4400 38,000 Hydroxide
8 Shalina Chemaf Etoile SX/EW 6200 32,000 Hydroxide
9‡ ERG Boss Mining Mukondo SX/EW 2500 50,000 Hydroxide
10 Wanbao Kamoya Kamoya SX/EW 3000 30,000 Hydroxide
11 Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt Metal Mines Diverse SX/EW 3000 4000 Hydroxide
12 OMG GTL/STL Big Hill Smelter 2500 Alloy
13 Somika Somika Kisanfu Concentrator 2500 30,000 Concentrate
14 Jiana Energy MJM Diverse SX/EW 2500 Hydroxide
15 CREC MKM Kalumbwe-Myunga SX/EW 1500 25,000 Hydroxide
16 CREC Sicomines Dima SX/EW 1000 100,000 Hydroxide
17 Artisanal Other Diverse 6500
Zambia
1 Verdanta Konkola Copper Mines Nchanga, Konkola Smelter 2000 177,000 Alloy
2‡ ERG Chambishi Metals SX/EW 5000 50,000 Cathode

Source: CM Solutions analysis based on company disclosures and export declarations. ‡Temporarily closed.

sulphide concentrates.
A combination of the first and second flowsheets, which was used at
Luilu for almost 50 years, allows efficient treatment of both oxide and
sulphide ores. The recent upgrade of Katanga Mining’s facilities re-
tained the flotation and roasting operations, but the cobalt refinery has
been decommissioned.
The third generic flowsheet consists of flotation, which produces
concentrate, and a smelter, in which the concentrate smelted to pro-
duce blister copper and a copper-cobalt alloy. The Nchanga smelter of
KCM in Chingola, Zambia, is an example of this generic process. In the
DRC, cobalt alloys that are produced are classified in two types: a red
alloy, which contains about 85% copper, and a white alloy (alliage
blanc), which contains about 20% copper. White alloys are produced by
reduction in electric furnaces either directly from heterogenite or by
processing slag from a copper smelter. A composition of white alloy that
is typically produce from an electric arc smelter is given in Table 5.
In the next section, each of the unit operations that make up the
generic flowsheets given in Fig. 7, that is, concentration, roasting,
smelting, hydrometallurgical refining, and cobalt refining, are dis-
cussed in further detail. While the focus is on current operations,
techniques that have been used in the past are also discussed.
5. Unit operations for cobalt extraction
The production of high-grade products from the Copperbelt requires
focus from a combination of metallurgical disciplines. As illustrated in
Fig. 7, there are five general unit operations that are used. In this sec-
tion, the contributions of concentration, roasting, smelting, hydro-
metallurgical refining, and cobalt metal refining are discussed in further
detail.

4
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
Fig. 5. Cobalt supply chain from mine to manufacturing.
5.1. Concentration
Two techniques of concentrating the minerals of value that are used,
that is, gravity separation and flotation, are discussed in this section.
5.1.1. Gravity separation
Gravity separation is used to upgrade cobalt-rich ore, usually as a
pre-concentration process to reduce the gangue load to the plant. Jigs,
shaking tables, and dense media separation (DMS) plants have been
used (Shengo et al., 2019). DMS plants are used at Kamfundwa, Kin-
severe, Etoile (Kalukuluku), Dikulushi, and Mukondo (Shengo et al.,
2019).
DMS can be used to produce a saleable concentrate (note that a
recent increase in export duties and regulations has impacted the sale of
concentrates). Ore from the Mokondo Mine is crushed and washed to
less than20 mm. This crushed material is then fed into a mixer box with
FeSi, made up to a specific gravity of 2.75–2.85. Three main streams are
produced from the circuit: the DMS rejects (assaying about 1% Co);
DMS concentrate (assaying about 15% Co, with a size distribution of
between 5 and 20 mm); and DMS fines (assaying about 6% Co, with a
size distribution of between 0.65 and 5 mm). Slimes from washing,
DMS rejects and any sub-5% Co DMS fines are fed to the Kakanda
flotation concentrator plant for further cobalt recovery. The DMS con-
centrate is bagged and exported.
5.1.2. Flotation of sulphide and oxide minerals
Cobalt associated with sulphides readily floats with the copper
sulphides using xanthate-type collectors. Broadly, two flotation options
have been implemented in the past on the Copperbelt: (i) producing a
single sulphide flotation concentrate, and (ii) producing a copper-rich
concentrate and a cobalt-rich concentrate. This second option, referred
to as differential flotation, is achieved in two steps. The first step is bulk
copper-cobalt flotation, followed in a second step in which the flotation
of the cobalt minerals is suppressed. Perfect separation of copper and
cobalt by flotation is not possible: typical assays of the cobalt content of
the copper-rich concentrate range between 0.5 and 0.25% (with copper
assays between 28 and 32%), while the cobalt content of the cobalt-rich
assays ranges between 2 and 3% (with copper assays between 6 and
13%).
Table 2
Specifications for high-grade cobalt products (Coremax, 2020).
Description Co, % Ni, ppm Fe, ppm Cu, ppm
Cobalt sulphate, battery grade > 21 < 80 <3 <3
Cobalt hydroxide, battery grade > 62 < 500 < 50 < 10
Cobalt oxide, electronic grade 73.5 < 500 < 150 < 20
Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450
At Nkana, the copper and cobalt are floated together, then the pH is
increased to 9.5 using lime and cyanide is added as a depressant. The
cobalt concentrate from this differential flotation typically contains
1.6% Co, 9% Cu and 21% S (Mwakila et al., 2008). This flotation
concentrate is treated in the roast-leach-electrowinning plant at Nkana.
The flotation of oxide minerals, primarily malachite and hetero-
genite, is generally accomplished by sulphidization using either NaHS
or Na2S·9H2O as a conditioning step, followed by flotation using a
xanthate-type collector or a combination of xanthate and hydroxymate
collectors. The gangue matrix plays a significant role: flotation from a
dolomitic matrix is significantly more difficult than the flotation of the
same minerals from a siliceous matrix. The flotation of cobalt presents
significant difficulties, and it is thought that crystalline CoOOH does
not respond to sulphidization techniques, whereas the more amorphous
or crypto-crystalline forms of heterogenite and absolane respond
slightly better. In addition, small amounts of copper in the cobalt mi-
nerals is thought to assist in the flotation of the cobalt minerals. The
recovery of cobalt by flotation is typically poor, usually below 60%, and
in many instances it is well below this value.
The sulphide and oxide flotation circuit at Konkola Copper Mines
(KCM) is shown in Fig. 10. The plant is a two-stage circuit, consisting of
a sulphide flotation section and an oxide flotation section. In the first
stage, minerals that respond to xanthate as a collector are targeted. In
the second stage, sulphidization is used to recover the oxide minerals.
A specific cobalt flotation circuit is run at KCM’s Nchanga con-
centrator. The ore from the Nchanga open pit contains pockets of ore
with higher grades of cobalt, typically about 0.3% cobalt and 1.3%
copper. This ore is processed in campaigns through the cobalt flotation
circuit, which is illustrated schematically in Fig. 11. The concentrate
typically contains about 16% copper and 4% cobalt. This concentrate is
not sent to the smelter. Instead, it is sent to either the Chambishi or
Nkana cobalt plants, where it is roasted, which allows a higher cobalt
recovery than a smelter. Although sulphidization is used in this cobalt
flotation, the assays of cobalt and copper in the concentrate track one
another, suggesting that the mineral that floats is primarily carrolite.
Heterogenite is only recovered through attachment to sulfide minerals
or by entrainment.
The old flotation circuit at Katanga (KCC) was divided into separate
sulphide and oxide plants. The oxide circuit was fed with ore from the
Cd, ppm Zn, ppm Mn,ppm Mg,ppm Na,ppm Pb,ppm SiO2,ppm Ca,ppm
<3 <3 <3 < 10 < 10 <3 < 10 < 10
< 50 < 20 < 200 < 300 < 10 < 200
< 50 < 100 < 100 < 500 < 50 < 100
5
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 6. Photograph of cobalt minerals of the Copperbelt. Topleft: carrollite, sample from the Kolwezi area; Bottomleft: heterogenite (black), with a coating of
chrysocolla (blue/turquoise), sample from the Ruashi area; Right: high-purity cobalt cathode from Chambishi Metals.

Fig. 7. Three generic processing classes currently used to produce cobalt on the Copperbelt.

KOV open pit, while the sulphide circuit was fed with ore from the KTO
underground mine. The sulphide plant uses a conventional rougher,
scavenger, cleaner and recleaner configuration with sodium iso-butyl
xanthate as the collector. The oxide plant uses a rougher, scavenger and
cleaner configuration. The reagent scheme is more complex, consisting
of potassium n-butyl xanthate and a blend of fatty acids (Rinkalore) as
the collectors, sodium silicate (waterglass) as the dispersant, and so-
dium bisulphide as sulphidizing agent. The concentrates were treated
separately at the Luilu hydrometallurgical refinery. The new flotation
circuit at KCC targets only sulphide minerals – instead of treating the
oxide concentrate, the Luilu refinery now treats the tailings from the
sulphide flotation circuit. This new configuration is referred to as the
whole-ore leach (WOL) by KCC - and it is similar in concept to KCM’s
Tailings Leach Plant (TLP), which has operated since the mid-1970s.
The difference between the two operations is that the WOL operation
recovers cobalt whereas the TLP does not.
5.2. Smelting
Flotation concentrates are treated in smelter operations to produce
blister copper, cast into anodes and electro-refined to produce high
grade copper. Cobalt is lost to the slag in the furnace and can be re-
covered in a slag cleaning furnace or in specific cobalt recovery fur-
naces. Coke, reverts and concentrate are added to reduce the cobalt into
the alloy phase. The recovery of cobalt through this process is about
60%. An example of the flowsheet for this circuit is that shown in
Fig. 12 for the KCM smelter in Chingola.
Cobalt-containing ores were treated at Panda, Likasi, using an
electric arc furnace (Vanbrabant et al., 2013). Limestone was added as a
flux, and coal was added as a reductant. The product is a metallic phase
and a slag phase. After slow cooling, the metallic phase separates into a
“red alloy”, containing about 85% copper, and a “white alloy”, con-
taining about 15–20% copper, 40–45% cobalt, and 20–35% iron. The
white alloy was initially the form in which cobalt was produced in the

Table 3
Typical target values for dried cobalt hydroxide concentrate from the mine.
Description Co,% Cu,% Ni,% Mg,% Ca,% Fe,% Mn,% Al,% Free moisture, %

Value 44 0.4 0.1 2.8 0.2 0.02 0.1 0.05 < 1

6
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
Fig. 8. A schematic diagram of the high-grade low-grade solvent extraction circuit, based on the Ruashi circuit.
DRC. An advantage of this process is in the treatment of cobalt-bearing
wad because manganese reports primarily to the slag phase.
Other small-scale furnaces have operated in the DRC using this
process for the reduction of heterogenite ores. These small-scale op-
erations do not use the slow cooling process; instead, they produce a
single alloy, which can have a dark purple colour (Vanbrabant et al.,
2013).
A DC-arc furnace and pressure leaching plant was commissioned at
Chambishi for the treatment of the historical Nkana slag dump (Barnes
and Jones, 2011). This slag dump contained about 19 million tons of
slag assaying approximately 0.75% Co and 1.2% Cu in a fayalitic re-
verberatory furnace slag. The cobalt was present in the slag as CoO,
which was reduced using a carbon source in the DC-arc furnace at a
temperature of between 1500 and 1600 °C, which is well above the
liquidus temperature of the slag, which is about 1150 °C. The smelting
of the slag with carbon recovers of the cobalt into an iron-rich alloy.
The alloy was tapped from the furnace and atomized. The atomized
alloy was leached using oxygen under pressure, and the resulting cobalt
and copper rich solution was then fed to the hydrometallurgical re-
covery plant at Chambishi. The plant produced about 4000 tpa of cobalt
metal. The furnace was started in December 2000, and the plant was
finally closed in 2009 following a drop in cobalt price.
The Big Hill slag dump in Lumbubashi is processed in a 34 MW
electric arc furnace. The furnace, which has recently been refurbished,
treats slag material that is rich in cobalt, assuaying 2.1% cobalt and
1.4% copper (Jones and Pawlik, 2019; Shedd, 2019). The slag is dried
and fed to the furnace. Coke is added as a reducing agent. Metal is
tapped and fed to a 20 MW furnace. The metal is atomized in a water jet
to a fine powder of whilte alloy or alliage blanc (Shedd, 2019). Zinc
oxide is produced in the flue dust (Shengo and Kashala, 2013). The
composition of slag feed, alloy and dust phases are given in Table 6. The
alliage blanc is exported for treatment at the hydrometallurgical re-
finery in Kokkola, Finland.
5.3. Roasting
The roasting of sulphide concentrates that are high in cobalt has
been used for the recovery of cobalt at Chambishi, Luilu, Shituru and
Nkana. Concentrates are roasted at between 650 and 710 °C in a flui-
dised bed. These roasters produce sulphates and basic sulphates. This is
achieved by carefully controlling the temperature in the range of 680
and 710 °C. Above 650 °C, Fe2O3 is the dominant iron product. At
680 °C, 93% of the copper is forms copper sulphate, and this drops to
50% at 720 °C. About 90% of the cobalt remains in the sulphate form at
7
Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450
720 °C. The offgas is passed through a series of cyclones or venturi
scrubbers to recover dust, and the cyclone overflow is sent to the acid
plant. This process is shown in Fig. 13.
Concentrates that are high in copper and low in sulphur might not
allow for autothermal operation in a roaster. Under these conditions,
additional fuel is required, usually in the form of coal or sulphur. The
additional fuel is mixed with the ore and fed into the roaster using a
screw feeder. Some operations have experienced problems with the
sulphur simply subliming into the gas phase, with no thermal benefit
being achieved. Direct injection has been used to minimise this pro-
blem.
5.4. Hydrometallurgical processing of ores and concentrates
The hydrometallurgical refinery consists of leaching of copper and
cobalt, solvent extraction of copper, cobalt purification and precipita-
tion of cobalt hydroxide. Each of these operations in the hydro-
metallurgical refinery are discussed in the sections that follow.
5.4.1. Leaching of copper and cobalt minerals
Cobalt minerals are difficult to leach without a reductant. This is
because some or all the cobalt present in both sulphide and oxide mi-
nerals is in the trivalent state, Co3+, which has a low solubility in
aqueous solutions, causing the rate of leaching of these minerals to be
low. For this reason, a reductant, such as sodium meta-bisulphite
(SMBS) or sulphur dioxide gas (SO2), is added to the leaching reactors
to reduce Co3+ to Co2+ (Mwema et al., 2002). In the leaching solution,
the reducing species at the particle surface is likely to be ferrous ions in
solution rather than the SMBS or SO2 itself. In other words, SMBS re-
duces ferric ions to ferrous ions, and these ferrous ions react at the
mineral surface. If this is the case, it implies that the presence of dis-
solved iron in solution is desirable. The range of concentration that is
desirable is probably between 2 and 10 g/L Fe, but this has not been
established yet.
Leaching is generally conducted in a series of atmospheric tanks.
The residence time can vary between 4 and 8 h, with acid and SMBS
added to the first tank. SMBS may be added further down the train to
optimize the recovery and the consumption of reagent. Generally, flat-
bottomed mechanically agitated tanks with gravity overflow are used.
The exception is the Tailings Leach Plant at Chingola, which uses air-
agitated pachucas; however, no reductant is added for the dissolution of
cobalt at this plant.
The leaching of concentrate tailings has been practised since the
early 1970s at KCM’s Tailings Leach Plant in Chingola. The copper
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

SiO2, ppm

< 10
< 20

Approved brands: Katanga cathodes, Chambishi broken cathodes, CTT broken cathodes, Minara briquettes, Ambatovy briquettes, Norilsk grade 1 and grade 2 cut cathodes.
Pb, ppm

< 30
< 60
Approved brands: Nikkelverk cut cathodes, Vale cobalt rounds, SMM cut cathodes, Jinchuan cut cathodes, Jiangsu (KLK) broken cathodes, Sherritt briquettes.
Mg, ppm

< 10
< 30
Mn, ppm

< 20
< 50

*Historical classification. Metal Bulletin recently changed names from “high grade” and “low grade” to “alloy grade” and “standard grade”.
Zn, ppm

< 100
< 50
Cd, ppm

Fig. 9. Chambishi flowsheet. The left-hand side shows the roasting and hy-
< 50
< 50

drometallurgical refinery, while the right-hand side shows the cobalt metal
refinery.

Table 5
Grades for white alloy (Vanbrabant et al., 2013).
Cu, ppm

< 30
< 50

Description Co, % Ni, % Fe, % Cu, % Mn, %

White alloy 31.1 3.59 29.0 23.5 0.58

content is leached at a pH of about 1.5, and the copper from the re-
Fe, ppm

sulting solution is extracted by solvent extraction and electrowinning.

< 100
< 50
Grades for cobalt metal (Fastmarkets, 2020; Sole et al., 2019).

No cobalt is recovered in this operation.

The Metalkol plant processes historical tailings from the
Kingamyambo tailings dam and the Musunoi river tailings, which were
produced by the old flotation concentrator. The copper and cobalt in
these deposits are readily extracted with low acid-gangue consumption.
< 1000
< 1500
Ni, ppm

A two-stage leaching process is used. The first stage targets copper, and
the second stage targets cobalt, allowing both copper and cobalt leach
efficiencies to be optimized independently. In a one-stage leaching
> 99.8
> 99.3
> 99.8
> 99.3

process, it might be possible that copper is precipitated as a sulphite

Co, %

salt, such as CuSO3.Cu2SO3·2H2O, which could significantly impact the

copper leaching efficiency.
Metal Bulletin high-grade*

At Mutanda Mining the run-of-mine is crushed, milled and fed di-

Metal Bulletin low-grade*

rectly into the leach plant. Raffinate is used in the milling to aid with
leaching efficiency and water-balance management.
Standard Grade

Heap leaching has attracted attention in the DRC, particularly after

Alloy Grade

Boss Mining implemented a heap leaching operation at Luita. The heaps

Description

at Boss Mining are between 3 and 4 m in height. The crushed material is

Table 4

sized, with the top size placed on the heaps, and the undersized dis-
carded. The acid consumption of the undersize material made it

8
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 10. The sulphide and oxide circuits at Nchanga.

uneconomic to process, so it was discarded despite containing 20% of
the copper in the run-of-mine. Heap leaching recoveries of copper are
low (between 40 and 60%), and the recovery of cobalt is more difficult
than in tanks. This is because the dissolution of cobalt is slower than the
dissolution of copper, requiring the heap to be irrigated for longer,
increasing the gangue acid consumption. Cobalt is targeted by irrigating
the heap with a solution containing ferrous ions. The ferrous ions are
produced in a small agitated tank by the reduction of ferric ions to
ferrous ions using SMBS.
The KCC Luilu plant has been re-built as a whole-ore-leach opera-
tion, that is, as a tailings leach project. The difference between the old
and new process, in terms of the sources of ore for leaching are illu-
strated in Fig. 14. As can be seen in this flowsheet, the whole-ore-leach
project is the same in concept as the tailings leach plant practiced by
KCM in Chingola.
As mining continues, the nature of the ore changes with depth from
weathered and oxidized ore to transition ore (oxide and sulphide), and
new processing facilities are required to effectively produce copper and
cobalt from these transition ores. Both the old and new Luilu processes
at KCC are options for treating transition ores (see Fig. 14). The sul-
phide fraction is recovered by flotation and roasted. The roast calcine is
then leached, either with the sulphide flotation tails, or with an oxide

Fig. 11. The cobalt flotation circuit at Nchanga.

9
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 12. The KCM’s Nkana smelter and cobalt recovery furnace.

concentrate. As the oxide ores are depleted, it is possible that more is removed from this bleed stream.
roasters will be integrated into the circuit. Copper SX provides the most effective separation of copper and
cobalt of all the metallurgical options. Concentrations of copper in the
bleed stream can be low as 50 mg/L. The change from direct electro-
5.4.2. Copper solvent extraction
winning to SX-EW flowsheets means that the concentration of cobalt in
Copper solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) has been
the bleed stream and hence the cobalt purification section is sig-
implemented at all major hydrometallurgical facilities on the
nificantly lower. Typically, the concentration of cobalt has reduced
Copperbelt. In these leach-SX-EW plants, cobalt and other impurities
from the range of 10 to 20 g/L with direct electrowinning to the range
must be bled from the leaching circuit. This bleed is done either as a
of 2–5 g/L with copper SX. The benefit is that the concentration of
direct bleed of the raffinate or using the low-grade raffinate in the high-
copper in the cobalt purification section is much lower – it was 5 to
grade/low-grade split SX circuit (see Fig. 8) as the bleed stream. Cobalt

Table 6
Composition of feed, alloy and dust fumes from the electric arc furnace at Lumbumbashi (Rumbu, 2016). Oxygen makes up most of the remaining composition.
Co, % Cu, % Fe, % Zn, % Pb, % S, % SiO2, % Al2O3, % MgO, % CaO, % CO, %

Feed 2.0 1.5 22.7 7.0 0.8 0.8 30.7 7.6 6.1 12.2 –
Alloy 19.0 14.0 58.5 1.6 – 4.0 – – – – –
Slag 0.2 0.2 21.0 1.6 0.2 0.4 37.5 9.4 7.5 15.0 –
Gas – – – 30.0 1.0 1.0 – – – – 68.0

10
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 13. Roaster circuit at Chambishi.

Fig. 14. Simplified representation of the new and old processes at the Kamoto Concentrator (KTC) and Luilu plants of the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) in the DRC.

10 g/L in the direct electrowinning process after removal of copper in
the de-copperizing cells and is less than 0.2 to 1.0 g/L in the SX-EW
process. Despite this change in feed composition, the same cobalt
purification process is employed.
5.4.3. Purification (impurity removal) and cobalt precipitation
In order to produce a high-grade cobalt product, the process must
remove some or all of the Mg2+, Al3+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Zn2+, Ni2+, Mn2+,
SeO22-, PO43-, AsO43- and SiO2 (Louis et al, 1988). Traditionally, this
was done by using a variety of precipitation techniques, which resulted
is a solution that was of pure enough to produce high-grade cobalt
cathode by electrowinning. The precipitation characteristics of main
impurity elements as a function pH at 38 °C is shown in Fig. 15 (Rao
et al., 1993). Significant loss of cobalt occurs as the pH increases. This
means that these cakes need to be recycled to recovery the cobalt,
which can lead to an accumulation of these impurities. As a result,
modern circuits such as those at Chambishi and Tenke Fungurume in-
clude impurity removal by solvent extraction and ion exchange either

11
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
Fig. 15. Amount of Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Co precipitated as a function of pH using
lime at 38 °C (data from Rao et al., 1993).
in the hydrometallurgical refinery or the cobalt metal refinery.
The flowsheet for the purification to produce metal at Chambishi
was shown in Fig. 9, while the historical flowsheet used at Luilu is
shown in Fig. 16. The steps are iron and aluminium precipitation,
copper precipitation (referred to in Zambia as the “clean-up” pre-
cipitation, see Fig. 9), nickel precipitation, zinc precipitation, and the
Fig. 16. Historical purification circuit and cobalt metal refinery at the Luilu metallurgical plant. (Louis et al., 1988; Crundwell, site visit 2013).
12
Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450
recovery of cobalt as cobalt hydroxide, which was then transferred to
the cobalt metal refinery. A comparison of the processes and their
conditions currently used at different operations on the Copperbelt is
given in Table 7. Depending on impurity levels, some of these pur-
ification steps might be done in the cobalt metal refinery, rather than in
the hydrometallurgical refinery. For example, at Chambishi, the iron,
copper, and zinc removal steps are in the hydrometallurgical refinery,
while the nickel removal step forms part of the cobalt metal refinery
(see Fig. 9).
The purification of the cobalt stream has been simplified by the
decision of all the DRC operations to make impure cobalt hydroxide the
final product of the mine rather than cobalt cathode (see Table 1). In
most cases, only a single purification step is undertaken, that is, iron/
aluminium precipitation. However, while less purification steps are
undertaken, the conditions and performance criteria have changed. An
example is the case of manganese, which did not plate with cobalt in
electrowinning, but will precipitate with the cobalt as hydroxide. As a
result, the redox potential of the iron precipitation step is increased to
beyond 700 mV vs SCE using a mixture of air and SO2 as the oxidant
(Schulze-Messing et al., 2007; van Rooyen et al., 2007; Mulaudzi and
Mahlangu, 2009). In severe cases, more manganese is present in solu-
tion than iron, so the required redox potential is above 800 mV. With
the increase in redox potential comes the increasing possibility of oxi-
dizing cobalt to the trivalent state, Co3+, which will lead to cobalt
losses as a CoOOH precipitate.
Copper removal is achieved by raising the pH to about 6, and
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Table 7
Comparison of the hydrometallurgical purification of cobalt solutions.
Unit Chambishi Nkana Luilu (old circuit) Tenke Fungurume Metalkol Mutoshi (under
construction)

Final mine product Co cathode Co cathode Co cathode Co hydroxide Co hydroxide Co hydroxide

Iron (aluminium, manganese) removal
Method precipitation precipitation precipitation precipitation precipitation precipitation
Cobalt tenor g/L 5 7 10
Reagent limerock limestone lime limestone limestone lime limestone
quicklime
Oxidant air air air air/SO2 air/SO2 air/SO2
pH 3.5 to 4.5 3.5 2.8 to 3.5 3.5 4.5 to 4.8 3.5
Redox mV SCE > 700 > 700
Residence time h 6 6
Temperature °C 55 25 50 25 55
Copper removal
Method precipitation precipitation precipitation precipitation none none
Reagent lime lime lime milk of lime
pH 5.8 6.7 6.4 5.8
Temperature °C 60 45
Zinc removal
Method SX SX precipitation none for Co(OH)2 none none
production
pH 5.8
Reagent D2EHPA (2%) D2EHPA (2%) NaHS and Na2CO3
Configuration 4 extract, strip with 150 g/L H2SO4
and strip with HCl
pH 7 6.7 4.8 to 5.2
Temperature 65 25
Reagent Lime Lime Lime
Primary cobalt precipitation
pH 8.5 8.8 8.0 to 8.4 7.5 8.1 to 8.3 8.2
Temperature °C 60 25 45 60 25
Reagent lime quicklime lime MgO MgO MgO
Residence time h 4 6
Secondary cobalt precipitation
pH 8.5
Temperature 50
Reagent MgO

precipitating copper in the form of a copper-cobalt basic sulphate,
which can be represented as xMSO4.yM(OH)2·zH2O where M is either
copper or cobalt, and x, y, and z are relative proportions. Because the
ratio of cobalt to copper in the precipitated solids may be as high as 0.1,
this precipitate is recycled to leaching. The liquor from copper removal
can be passed through a bed of cobalt granules to reduce the con-
centration of copper to below 1 mg/L by cementation.
Zinc removal is currently performed in the hydrometallurgical re-
finery using solvent extraction using D2EHPA at Chambishi Metals.
Only a portion of the total stream, about 40%, is treated through the SX-
circuit. The concentration of zinc in the raffinate is less than 5 mg/L,
and typically 1 mg/L (Sole et al., 2005). The concentration of D2EPHA
is low so as to remove zinc but not cobalt (Rao et al., 1993). Zinc was
removed by sulphide precipitation at the Luilu operation with con-
siderable co-precipitation of cobalt (Le Roux et al., 2007).
Cobalt precipitation can be performed either as a single stage at a
pH value of about 8.4, or in two stages, with the pH of the first about
7.5, and the second stage at about 8.2–8.5. The purpose of the first stage
is twofold. Firstly, it decreases the amount of reagent needed, normally
this is costly MgO. Secondly, it limits the amount of magnesium and
manganese that reports to the cobalt cake, although this is not quan-
titative since there still is magnesium and manganese in the product
(see Table 3). The form of the cobalt precipitate is as a basic sulphate
with a general formula xCoSO4.Co(OH)2·yH2O, with the values of x and
y about 0.25 and 2, respectively (Louis et al., 1988). There are several
reagents that can be used for the precipitation of cobalt (Fisher, 2011),
such as hydrated lime (Ca(OH)2), sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), sodium
hydroxide (NaOH), and magnesia (MgO). As shown in Table 7, lime and
magnesia are preferred.
The use of MgO as a precipitation reagent means that the water to
the tailings contains dissolved magnesium. If this water is re-used, and
it normally is re-used, the concentration of magnesium builds up. The
maximum level this can reach is about 10 to 12 g/L, due to the in-
creased viscosity of the solution.
5.5. Cobalt metal refinery
With the modernization of KCC’s Luilu plant, the (temporary) clo-
sure of Chambishi Metals, and Tenke Fungurume’s preference for cobalt
hydroxide, there is currently no operating cobalt metal refinery on the
Copperbelt. Since it is unlikely that both mining companies and the
DRC state will continue to accept a 35% discount on the price of the
contained metal, especially as high-quality cobalt has been produced in
the past at Luilu, it is anticipated that high-quality cobalt products will
be produced in the DRC or within the southern African region.
The flowsheet for the Chambishi cobalt metal refinery is shown in
Fig. 17. The cobalt metal refinery consists of the re-dissolution of the
cobalt hydroxide to produce a concentrated solution of cobalt sulphate.
The concentrations of this solution at Luilu recently are given in Table 8
during a period in which the cobalt product was standard grade
cathode, that is, greater the 99.3% Co. Ideally, the concentration of
cobalt should be higher than that given in Table 8, about 30 to 45 g/L
Co, to achieve cobalt purities of more than 99.3%.
The concentration of nickel at Luilu, given in Table 8, was suffi-
ciently low to produce cobalt metal within the high-grade specifications
(Co:Ni ratio of greater than 250), but at other locations this might be
different. At Chambishi, if there was no nickel removal step, the con-
centration of nickel would be about 900 mg/L in the advance electro-
lyte. This solution impurity translates into an impurity of 0.26% or
2600 g/t of nickel in the cathode, which exceeds the desired

13
F.K. Crundwell, et al. Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450

Fig. 17. Cobalt metal refinery at Chambishi Metals.

specification. In order to produce cobalt cathode within specification, Table 9

Chambishi requires for than 160 mg/L Ni in the advance electrolyte Comparison of operating conditions for cobalt electrowinning.
(Rao et al., 1993). Chambishi implemented a continuous ion-exchange Refinery Nkana1 Chambishi2 Luilu3 Shituru4
system (ISEP) to remove this nickel load from the advance electrolyte
prior to cobalt electrowinning (Bailey et al., 2001). The resin used is Mopani Kamoto Gecamines
Dow M4195. (KCC)
Production capacity 5500 6000 20,000 10,000
To produce high-grade cobalt, zinc needs to be removed to low le- Cells
vels. Most of the plants running a cobalt metal refinery removed zinc Number 80 34 108 80
early in the circuit (see previous section in this paper on the hydro- Cathodes
metallurgical refinery). For example, the Luilu plant used sulphide Cathodes per cell 12 30 20 18
Cathode area 1.8 1.45 1.8 1.8
precipitation to remove zinc prior to cobalt precipitation, and
(m2)
Chambishi use solvent extraction. The concentration of cobalt in the Material SS 316L SS 316 SS 316 Carbon steel
sulphide precipitate is significant, leading to high losses of cobalt. An Electrical
alternative to sulphide precipitation is ion-exchange, which was tested Cell voltage (V) 4.0–4.5 4.8 3.7 4.0–4.8
successfully at Luilu on the advance electrolyte stream (Jurrius et al, Cathode current 300 280–400 300–400 400
density (A/m2)
2014). This on-site pilot plant trial included an additional ion exchange Current 60 65–70. 60–80. 55–60.
step for the removal of copper. Although Tenke Fungurume currently efficiency (%)
prefer cobalt hydroxide as the mine product, a cobalt refinery circuit Electrolyte
was installed in which nickel and zinc ion exchange were incorporated Co composition 20 30–40 30–45 30–40.
(g/L)
into the cobalt metal refinery (hydroxide dissolution, iron removal,
Delta (g/L) 5 5 5 5
copper removal, zinc ion exchange, nickel ion exchange, and cobalt Feed rate (m3/h/ 2.9 1.6–2.5
electrowinning). m2)
Once the advance solution has been purified, cobalt metal is pro- Cell temperature 50–55 70 75–80 45–60
duced using electrowinning (see Fig. 17). A comparison of the condi- (C)
pH 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.3
tions for cobalt electrowinning for different refineries is given in Purity
Table 9. The cathode quality produced by refineries is given in % Co 99.7 99.3 99.8 99.8
Table 10. These refineries use a sulphate electrolyte in an undivided recent
cell. 99.3

Source: 1. Crundwell et al.(2011); 2. Rao et al. (1993) and Rumbu (2016); 3.

6. Processing challenges
6.1. Changing market requirements
There is a tidal change in the product pattern of cobalt. In the past,
cobalt from the region was produced as cathode of relatively high
grade. Currently, cobalt is produced as an impure hydroxide, resulting
in a discounted price and increased transportation charges. This change
is facilitated partly by the market, where it is argued that consumers are
willing to accept impure cobalt hydroxide. However, mining companies
traditionally do not easily accept a discount to the metal price, and it is
anticipated that they will seek to reclaim much of this discount as
Louis et al. (1988), Peek et al. (2009); 4. Louis et al. (1988), Peek et al. (2009).
possible by improving their process technology. Improving the quality
of the final product should also be the objective of the governments of
the DRC and Zambia.
6.2. Regional acid supply and demand
Current operations are predominantly treating near-surface ‘oxide’
deposits. The treatment of these ores requires acid, and since the
gangue mineralogy consists of carbonates such as dolomite, the gangue-
acid consumption is high. The supply of acid from smelters is limited,

Table 8
Concentrations in solution following cobalt hydroxide dissolution when zinc precipitation in the hydrometallurgical refinery is not operating (Jurrius et al., 2014).
Description Co, mg/L Ni, mg/L Fe, mg/L Cu, mg/L Zn, mg/L Mn, mg/L Mg, mg/L Pb, mg/L Ca, mg/L Pb, mg/L pH

Feed solution 17,000 66 1.5 1–3 1–3 3350 6000 60 710 60 5.8

14
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
Table 10
Comparison of cobalt cathode produced on the Copperbelt (Louis et al., 1988; Peek et al. 2009; Louis, 2009).
Refinery Ni, Fe, Cu, Cd, Zn,
g/t g/t g/t g/t g/t
Luilu 454 36 3 – 25
Chambishi 6000 8–14 12–30 8–13 1–25
Shituru 1406 36 72 281 12,664
and consequently several plants have their own sulphur-burning acid
plants. Sulphur is imported, primarily from Turkey and the middle East.
Some acid is supplied to the DRC by smelters in Zambia, particularly
from Kansanshi. The price of acid is generally low, but periods of dis-
ruption occur, resulting in price spikes as demand outpaces supply,
symptomatic of a by-product commodity.
6.3. Cobalt losses
Cobalt is present as both sulphides and oxides in the ore, making it
more difficult to target high recoveries. The whole-ore leach and
roasting process installed at Luilu (KCC) is the most complete solution
and should offer the highest recoveries of cobalt. However, most op-
erations targeting oxide ores do not have the roasting step and hence
lose the sulphide fraction, while those targeting the sulphide ores only
partially recover oxide cobalt (flotation and smelting).
Most of the processes producing cobalt currently do so by hydro-
metallurgical refining. Losses of cobalt during the purification steps is
minimized by retreating precipitation residues. However, the iron
precipitation residue can represent a significant loss of cobalt. This loss
is exacerbated when the concentration of manganese is high, and the
redox potential needs to be raised to very high levels.
6.4. Impurity removal
The impurities that commonly need to be removed are iron, alu-
minium, manganese, copper, nickel, and zinc. As shown earlier in this
paper, these impurities can be successfully removed using a combina-
tion of precipitation, solvent extraction and ion-exchange techniques. In
most cases, the impurities can be removed to very low levels. Other
impurities than might need be addressed in the hydrometallurgical
refinery (that is, still producing an impure cobalt hydroxide) are ur-
anium, nickel, and zinc.
Uranium is present in many of the ores of the region, particularly in
the DRC, and reports to the cobalt precipitate if not addressed. The
presence of uranium in the cobalt hydroxide prevents its export. A
possible method to prevent it reporting to the cobalt salt is to pre-
cipitate it in the leaching circuit using phosphoric acid. Some ores, such
as those at Mutanda Mining, may have a natural source of phosphate in
the form of pseudo-malachite, Cu5(PO4)2(OH)4, which causes the ur-
anium to precipitate in the leaching plant. The addition of phosphoric
acid to the leaching circuit reduces the concentration of uranium by
about 80%, which may be insufficient. An ion-exchange circuit in ad-
dition to phosphoric acid might be required to manage the uranium
content of the cobalt hydroxide.
Zinc and cadmium are usually removed together due to their similar
chemistry. Some ore bodies in the DRC contain elevated levels of zinc
and cadmium - see, for example, the impurity levels in the cathode from
Shituru given in Table 10. It is anticipated that zinc removal will be
included in the process to provide a better product.
6.5. Reagent choice
As shown in Table 7, limestone, lime, and magnesia are used as
precipitation reagents. In addition, sodium carbonate and sodium hy-
droxide, both more expensive reagents, have also been used. The cost of
15
Minerals Engineering 156 (2020) 106450
Mn, Pb, Si S C O
g/t g/t g/t g/t g/t g/t
2 3 10 12 59 –
2–10 20–50 – 2–20 < 100 25–100
354 101 1076 1444 486 –
magnesia (MgO) is a significant contributor to the operating costs.
Several processes are in the process of development for the optimization
of reagent usage (Kotze, 2012). Voigt and Hourn (2017) described an
interesting option that allows lime to be used instead of magnesium
oxide. They proposed that the gypsum that precipitates with the cobalt
hydroxide cake can be removed by screening at about 38 µm. The ad-
vantages of this option are such that it is likely to trialed at a major
operation in the DRC.
6.6. Water balance
The control of water in the hydrometallurgical circuit is crucial to
the successful operation of the plant (Alexander et al., 2018). In several
operations, the trade-off between throughput and product quality has
been settled in favour of throughput, leading to excess volumes through
the counter-current decantation sections, carrying calcium and silica
impurities into both the copper electrowinning and cobalt circuits (see
the flowsheet given in Fig. 8). In copper electrowinning, this has re-
sulted in calcium precipitates in the multimedia filters, the growth of
gypsum on the lead anodes, and the formation of an amorphous silica
scale on the cathodes. In the cobalt circuit, increased throughput and
poor water balance control results in the increased loss of cobalt due to
the reduced concentration. This trade-off is likely to continue to be a
challenge for metallurgists at operations on the Copperbelt.
Some operations have implemented a “milling-in-raffinate” circuit
to reduce the water and de-watering requirements. This obviously
means that the mill needs to be built from stainless steel, but this ad-
ditional cost is outweighed by the benefit of introducing less water into
the hydrometallurgical circuit, which of course results in lower soluble
loss.
6.7. Circuit design
The design of the copper-cobalt circuit continues to change and
adapt to the market and technology changes. The introduction of
“whole ore leaching” at Katanga (also referred to as tailing leaching at
KCM) will increase the recovery of cobalt because it can recover cobalt
from sulphide and oxide minerals. However, this is at the expense of a
much larger leaching and counter current decantation circuit.
The two-stage counter-current leaching process, which allows for
the separate optimization of copper and cobalt leaching, is likely to
improve copper and cobalt leaching efficiency.
It will be interesting to observe the changes that mining companies
introduce to address the challenges of mixed ores as mining moves into
the transitional zone between the weathered oxide zone and the un-
weathered sulphide zone. Several companies are currently considering
the options and their associated costs.
7. Conclusions
This paper has described the ways in which cobalt is separated from
copper into various forms of saleable products. The great variety of
different circuit configurations and operating conditions is testament to
the ingenuity of the engineers and the companies of the region. The
biggest change of the latest 15 years has been the introduction of
copper solvent extraction into the hydrometallurgical flowsheets. This
F.K. Crundwell, et al.
has enabled the production of high-quality copper cathode but has at
the same time lowered the concentration of cobalt in the cobalt pur-
ification circuit. This creates the opportunity for the introduction of
alternative technologies, such as membrane concentration and acid
recovery using membranes.
The challenges of the complex mineralogy of cobalt have led to a
variety of technologies that encompass many areas of extractive me-
tallurgy. These processes continue to evolve in response to the rapidly
changing market requirements. The opportunities for innovation and
continued improvement in operational performance with respect to the
recovery and purification of cobalt are significant.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
F.K. Crundwell: Writing - original draft. N.B. Preez: Validation.
B.D.H. Knights: Validation.
References
Alexander, D., van der Merwe, C., Lumbule, R, Kgomo, J., 2018. Innovative process de-
sign for oxide ores in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Copper Cobalt Africa
(9th Southern African Base Metals Conference) Livingston, Zambia, Southern African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, pp. 225–238.
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Further reading
Jones, R.T., Denton, G., Reynolds, Q.G., 2002. Recovery of cobalt from slag in a DC arc
furnace at Chambishi, Zambia. J. South African Inst. Min. Metall. 102 (1), 5–9.