Slurry electrolysis of ocean polymetallic nodule
(Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Beijing 100044, China)
Abstract: The ocean poly-metallic nodule was leached by using slurry electrolysis process in HCl-NaCl medium. The leaching rates of Mn, Co, Cu and Ni in the ocean poly-metallic nodule are all above 97%. Meanwhile, the high purity of electrolytic MnO2 is also obtained as an anode product. The effects of electrolysis electric quantity, acidity, temperature, slurry density, grain size and iron ions concentration were studied. The results show that the ocean poly-metallic nodule can be treated economically in the slurry electrolysis process.
Key words: ocean poly-metallic nodule; slurry electrolysis process; high purity MnO2