Back to results
US 7,166,145 B1Granted
Recovery of precious metals
AssigneeSouth Dakota School of Mines and Technology
InventorKenneth N. Han
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This invention relates to the recovery of precious metals and, more particularly, to the recovery of precious metals, such as platinum group metals, gold and rhenium, from various sources using a solution comprising at least one ammonium salt, at least one halogen salt and at least one oxidant.
Claims45
A method of recovering a precious metal from a source material, comprising the steps of:
- a) contacting a source material comprising at least one precious metal with a solution comprising an ammonium salt, a halogen salt and an oxidant, wherein the oxidant is gaseous and is provided to the solution by the introduction of at least a first liquid reagent and at least a second liquid reagent;
- and
- b) recovering at least a portion of the at least one precious metal from the solution.
A method of separating a precious metal from a source material, comprising the steps of:
- a) combining a source material containing at least one precious metal with a solution comprising at least one ammonium salt, at least halogen salt and at least one gaseous oxidant, wherein the oxidant is provided to the solution by the introduction of at least a first liquid reagent and at least a second liquid reagent;
- and
- b) separating at least a portion of the at least one precious metal from the solution.
A method of extracting a precious metal from a source material comprising the steps of:
- a) charging to a reaction zone a solution comprising at least one ammonium salt, at least one halogen salt, at least one acid, water, and a source material containing at least one precious metal;
- b) heating the reaction zone to a temperature of approximately 50 degrees Celsius to approximately 100 degrees Celsius under oxidizing conditions to form a slurry, wherein the oxidizing conditions are provided by a gaseous oxidant that is provided to the solution by the introduction of at least a first liquid reagent and at least a second liquid reagent;
- and
- c) separating the at least one precious metal from the slurry.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.