Kennecott Copper Corporation

Edwin L Owen

David W Marshall

Ralph W Lai

Gale L Hubred

A process in which manganese is recovered from manganese nodules after the nodules have been treated to recover base metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum. The process includes the steps of reacting the manganese in the nodules to yield a carbonate and subjecting the manganese carbonate to flotation. The manganese carbonate froth is collected from the top of a flotation cell, is dried to produce a manganese concentrate, and is sintered to produce a synthetic manganese oxide. Sintering of such concentrates at 1000.degree. C. yields a product containing greater than 50% manganese. The effect of reagent dosage, pH control, and temperature control on the yield of the synthetic manganese oxide is also disclosed.

Flotation and sintering of synthetic manganese carbonate

A system of multiple extraction in which each of the metal elements extracted is bonded to the extractant with a different degree of intensity. To reduce impurities in each metal recovery stage, a bleed stream from each recovery stage is cascaded backwards. In general, the backward cascade disposes of the bleed stream from the most tightly bonded species by recycling it to any preceeding stage of a less tightly bonded species. An example of a process for recovering copper and nickel from an aqueous leach solution containing these values is given. In this type of process, ammonia, copper and nickel are first coextracted onto an organic extractant (oxime). Ammonia is stripped first. In a nickel recovery circuit, nickel values are selectively stripped from the oxime with acid, pure nickel is electrowon, and the acidic, nickel-barren raffinate from the electrowinning cell is recirculated. Downstream of the nickel recovery circuit, in a copper recovery circuit, copper is stripped from the oxime with acid, metal is electrowon from the acid, and metal-barren acid is recirculated. Nickel and other metallic impurities build up in the copper recovery circuit, and impurities build up in the nickel recovery circuit. To overcome this problem, bleed streams are taken from both circuits and fed to any preceding stage including the metal extraction stage. Because of the property of the extractant to extract both copper and nickel, the metal values in this directed stream eventually get re-extracted.

Cascading electrolyte bleed streams

Disclosed is a method of preparing a cathode for use in the electrodeposition of metallic structures in a predetermined pattern. A porous planar member is provided with a masked region of its porous surface corresponding to the desired pattern of the metallic filaments. A mating planar surface of a cathode base is cleaned, preferably leaving a tightly adhering intermediate coating on the planar surface, and then a non-conductive material, preferably an epoxy based resin ink, is forced through the porous planar member and printed onto the planar surface of the cathode base. The masked region of the porous member will prevent the printing in a region corresponding to the desired pattern on the cathode surface.

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San Antonio, TX, United States of America

Edwin L Owen