Process for leaching metal sulfides with reagents having thiocarbonyl functional groups
AssigneeJetti Resources, LLC
InventorsDavid Dixon, Edouard Asselin, Zihe Ren, Nelson Mora Huertas
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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 extraction relative to an acidic sulfate solution that does not contain the reagent, to produce a pregnant solution containing the metal ions.
Claims25
A method of recovering at least one base metal ion from a material comprising at least one base metal sulfide, the method comprising:
- contacting the material with an acidic solution comprising halide ions, a reagent having a thiocarbonyl functional group wherein the reagent does not complex/precipitate with the at least one base metal ions and at least one oxidizing agent wherein the oxidizing agent comprises an oxidation-reduction potential of less than 900 mV, to produce a pregnant solution comprising the at least one base metal ion;
- and
- recovering the at least one base metal ion from the pregnant solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.