SELECTIVE COBALT EXTRACTION FROM NICKEL AND MANGANESE SOLUTIONS

Methods of recovering nickel and manganese salts are disclosed. The method includes removing one or more impurities from an aqueous leach solution including cobalt, manganese, and nickel salts to produce a purified aqueous solution including the cobalt, manganese, and nickel salts. The method includes extracting the cobalt salt from the purified aqueous solution in a first liquid-liquid extraction step using an organic extractant to produce an aqueous raffinate solution including the nickel and manganese salts and a first loaded organic solution including the cobalt salt.