Techno-economic Analysis of Magnetic Treatment of Cobalt Concentrate

This paper analyzed the grade of iron and sulfur of cobalt concentrate in an iron in the past decade. The utilization of the magnetic separation technology for treating cobalt concentrate was carried out the techno-economic analysis. It was indicated that the cobalt concentrate quality had been improved significantly after magnetic separation; the grade of cobalt has been increased for 0.08 percentage points higher and the sulfur 3 percentage points higher. The recovery operations of cobalt and sulfur were 83.1% and 80.6% respectively, and the product yield of the magnetic was 27.85%, the grade of iron was 42.63% and the sulfur was 17.76%. According to the actual production data in 2009 and the experimental data of magnetic treatment of cobalt concentrate, the benefits of treating cobalt concentrate were calculated. The results showed that 5.342 million was increased for the sales and more than 4.6 million was increased for net returns by the magnetic treatment of cobalt concentrate.