Extraction or recovery of non-ferrous metal values from arsenic-containing materials
AssigneeSasox Processing Pty. Limited
InventorsRodney L. Leonard, John G. Whellock
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process suitable for the extraction or recovery of metal values from arsenic containing feeds and including the steps of: a) treating the feed with a nitric acid-containing leachant solution in order to dissolve the desired metals; b) adding a source of iron (III) to the leachant solution whereby to oxidise arsenic (III) in solution to arsenic (V); c) adding a neutralising agent to the leachant solution whereby to precipitate arsenic as arsenic (V); d) separating the arsenic (V) precipitate from the leachant solution; and e) recording metal values from the leachant solution.
Claims18
A process suitable for the extraction or recovery of metal values from arsenic containing feeds having an Fe/As ratio less than 4:1 and including the steps of:
- (a) treating the feed with a nitric acid-containing leachant solution in order to dissolve the desired metals;
- (b) adding a source of iron (III) to the leachant solution to achieve an Fe/As molar ratio of at least 4:1 in the leachant solution whereby to oxidize arsenic (III) in solution to arsenic (V) ;
- (c) adding sufficient neutralizing agent to the leachant solution to achieve a pH in the range of 4 to 7 in the leachant solution whereby to precipitate arsenic as ferric arsenate;
- (d) separating the ferric arsenate precipitate from the leachant solution;
- and
- (e) subsequent to step (d), recovering metal values from the leachant solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.