Method of processing hydro-mineral lithium-containing feedstock

Abstract

The invention relates to hydrometallurgy of rare metals, in particular, to lithium sorption recovery from natural brines and wastewaters. The method comprises introducing a feed lithium-containing brine to a sorption-desorption concentrating module in a form of a vertical column filled with an inorganic sorbent being a chlorine-containing lithium aluminum double hydroxide. After sorption, the lithium saturated sorbent is washed with 27% ammonium chloride solution in the amount of 80-150% of the sorbent volume in the column and flowing through the column in the direction reverse to the direction of the feed brine flow. Then lithium desorption from the sorbent is performed with desalinated water to obtain a lithium enriched solution containing ammonium chloride impurities, which is then evaporated followed by ammonium chloride sublimation from the dry mixture. The effect of the invention is the reduced lithium losses with the washing solution and increased purity of the target product (LiCl concentrate).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.