Reductive leaching was used to dissolve metals, especially cobalt, present in Fars Tidar mine,. In this paper, cobalt ore was leached with sulphuric acid in the presence of phenol to determine the effects of various factors on leaching. These factors included temperature, acid concentration, time, phenol content, pulp density, and interaction between some of the parameters. The results indicated that temperature was more effective on SN ratio (Signal to Noise ratio) which was found to be about 80%. The effecst of time and acid concentration on SN ratio were also determined at about 8% and 4 %, respectively. Although the effect of phenol content on cobalt leaching was too low but dissolution of cobalt decreased in the absence of phenol. Therefore, it was concluded that phenol was one of the factors in effective the leaching process. Anyway, three parameters including temperature, acid concentration, and time were selected as more effective parameters. Consequently optimum conditions can be obtained with high levels content of temperature, acid concentration, and time with low levels of phenol and pulp density.

Keywords: Reductive leaching, Cobalt, Sulphuric acid, Optimization, Taguchi method, Tidar mine, SN ratio, Phenol

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