Study of the valorization of contained cobalt

The present study deals with the valorisation of the gypsum produced at the SHITURU plants belonging to GECAMINES Sarl which has an average content of 2.81% cobalt and 0.21% copper essentially by optimizing the operating parameters of an acid reducing leaching in a series of laboratory tests carried out in stirred tank.The results informed us that cobalt leaches easily and good dissolution yields can be achieved by adding Iron(II) in the form of FeSO4.7H2O powder to the reaction medium. The leaching at pH 2 at 550C for 3 hours with a Fe2+ concentration around 1% by weight of gypsum is the one chosen as optimal to favor the subsequent solvent extraction operation.