US 2024/0318281 A1Published application

Production method for valuable metals

AssigneeSumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.

InventorsYu Yamashita, Toshihiko Nagakura, Tomoya Hagio

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Abstract

Provided is a method by which it is possible to collect valuable metals from raw material including waste lithium-ion batteries or the like. The present invention is a method which includes: a step for preparing raw material including at least Li, Al, and the valuable metals; a step for obtaining a reduction that includes slag and an alloy containing the valuable metals by subjecting the raw material to a reduction melting treatment; and a slag separation step for collecting the alloy by separating out the slag from the reduction, wherein, in a step for adding a flux containing calcium (Ca) to the raw material and performing reduction and melting thereof, the reduction melting treatment is performed such that the liquidus line temperature of ternary Al2O3—Li2O—CaO slag in a phase diagram is greater than the liquidus line temperature of a ternary Cu—Ni—Co alloy in a phase diagram.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A method of producing a valuable metal from a raw material comprising the valuable metal comprising copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co), the method comprising:

a preparation step of preparing a raw material containing at least lithium (Li), aluminum (Al), and the valuable metal;
a reductive melting step of subjecting the raw material to a reductive melting treatment to obtain a reduced product comprising a slag and an alloy comprising the valuable metal;
and
a slag separation step of separating the slag from the reduced product to recover the alloy,
wherein, in one or both of the preparation step and the reductive melting step, a flux containing calcium (Ca) is added to the raw material,
and in the reductive melting step,
the reductive melting treatment is performed so that liquidus temperature in a state diagram of an Al2O3—Li2O—CaO ternary slag is higher than liquidus temperature in a state diagram of a Cu—Ni—Co ternary alloy, as well as
a submerged arc furnace is used as a melting furnace so that the liquidus temperature of the alloy is lower than the liquidus temperature of the slag by 100° C. or more.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.