Composition and use of the composition for the extraction of metals from aqueous solution

Abstract

A composition for use in extracting copper values from aqueous solutions of metal salts which comprises: A. one or more o-hydroxyaryloximes containing at least 5 aliphatic or alicyclic carbon atoms which are strong metal extractants which, in 0.2 molar solution in an aliphatic hydrocarbon solution when loaded with 50% of the theoretical uptake of copper, will be in equilibrium with a 0.1 molar solution of copper as copper perchlorate at a pH less than 1; B. one or more branched chain aliphatic or aromatic-aliphatic alcohol containing 14 to 30 carbon atoms or aliphatic or aliphatic-aromatic esters containing 10 to 30 carbon atoms in which the ratio of the number of methyl carbon atoms to the number of non-methyl carbon atoms is higher than 1:5 and which is selected from the group consisting of highly branched hexadecyl alcohol, highly branched isooctadecyl alcohol and a diester of 2,2,4-trimethyl -1,3-pentanediol; and C. one or more o-hydroxyarylketoximes which are weak metal extractants and which, in 0.2 molar solution in an aliphatic hydrocarbon solution when loaded with 50% of the theoretical uptake of copper, will be in equilibrium with a 0.1 molar solution for copper as copper perchlorate at a pH of 1.2 or higher; wherein the weight ratio of component A to component B is in the range 10:1 to 1:3.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.