Process for leaching metal sulfides with reagents having thiocarbonyl functional groups
AssigneeThe University of British Columbia
InventorsDavid Dixon, Edouard Asselin, Zihe Ren
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Abstract
This application pertains to methods of recovering metals from metal sulfides that involve contacting the metal sulfide with an acidic sulfate solution containing ferric sulfate and a reagent that has a thiocarbonyl functional group, wherein the concentration of reagent in the acidic sulfate solution is sufficient to increase the rate of metal ion extraction relative to an acidic sulfate solution that does not contain the reagent, to produce a pregnant solution containing the metal ions.
Claims38
A method of recovering at least one base metal from at least one base metal sulfide in a material, the method comprising:
- contacting a material comprising at least one base metal sulfide with an acidic sulfate solution comprising a reagent having a thiocarbonyl functional group, wherein the reagent is thioacetamide (TA), to produce a pregnant solution containing base metal ions;
- and
- recovering the at least one base metal from the at least one base metal sulfide from the pregnant solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.