Recovery of critical metals from SX-EW copper raffinate and other solutions derived from leaching ores with sulfuric acid
AssigneeScandium Internatlonal Mlning Corporatlon
InventorWillem P. C. Duyvesteyn
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Abstract
A method for extracting secondary metal values from a sulfuric acid leachate is provided. The method includes providing a leachate which contains a primary metal and a plurality of secondary metals, wherein the primary metal is selected from the group consisting of Cu, Li and Ni and is derived from sulfuric acid leaching of an ore; passing the leachate through a first ion exchange resin which is selective to, and releasably binds, the plurality of secondary metals; stripping the plurality of secondary metals from the second or third ion exchange resins, thereby obtaining a first extract; and recovering the secondary metals from the first extract.
Claims24
A method for extracting secondary metal values from a sulfuric acid leachate, comprising:
- providing a leachate which contains a primary metal and a plurality of secondary metals, wherein the primary metal is selected from the group consisting of Cu, Li and Ni and is derived from sulfuric acid leaching of an ore;
- passing the leachate through a first ion exchange resin which is selective to, and releasably binds, the plurality of secondary metals;
- stripping the plurality of secondary metals from the first ion exchange resin, thereby obtaining a first extract;
- and
- recovering the secondary metals from the first extract;
- wherein the sulfuric acid leachate is obtained by leaching a lithium ore with sulfuric acid, wherein the resulting leachate contains scandium or aluminum values, and wherein the scandium or aluminum values are selectively recovered by ion exchange.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.