Employing magnesium-lead melt for synergetic and selective extraction of copper from copper-cobalt alloy

This research aims to extract Cu from Cu-Co alloy with high efficiency and selectivity by employing binary Mg-Pb melt. The optimal conditions for the extraction of Cu were determined. The results showed under optimal conditions, 96.5% of Cu in the Cu-Co alloy could be selectively extracted after treatment at 800 °C for 1 h, with the extraction rates of only 0.2% Fe, 0.6% Co, and 1.4% Si. The dissolution mechanism involved the counter diffusion of Mg/Pb and Cu across the diffusion zone of the Cu-Co alloy, and Mg in the binary Mg-Pb melt played a major role in the selective dissolution of Cu, especially at the dissolution forefront. The rate-controlling step of the extraction was dominated by the interfacial reaction.