Process for the extraction of manganese

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for the recovery of manganese from an acidic leach solution comprising manganese ions, the method comprising the steps of: (i.) subjecting the acidic leach solution to one or more preliminary impurity removal steps to remove a substantial proportion of target impurities, thereby producing a purified leach solution containing manganese; (ii.) subjecting the purified leach solution to a solvent extraction step, comprising contacting the purified leach solution with an organic solution of a carboxylic acid to extract manganese ions into the organic solution and separating a loaded organic solution from an aqueous raffinate; and (iii.) subjecting the loaded organic solution to a stripping step, comprising contacting the loaded organic solution with an acidic strip solution to produce a manganese strip liquor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.