Metal recovery

sustainability 11 03347

Thriveni Thenepalli, Ramakrishna Chilakala

Heap leaching is a low-cost technology used in industrial mining to recover precious metals such as gold and uranium, along with several other highly sought after metals like copper, from their primary resources (ores and minerals). For many decades, there has been a growing demand for heap leaching due to its environmental benefits. Heap leaching provides mining operators with a benign, effective

MME09MT 1403 PEMUNIT PROCESSES IN HYDROMETALLURGY LEACHING, PURIFICATION OF LEACH LIQUOR

SWETA SUMAN, ADITYA KUMAR JHA

Hydrometallurgy is an important technique within extractive metallurgy that enables the recovery of metals from ores through aqueous solutions. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of unit processes involved in hydrometallurgy, particularly focusing on leaching and purification of leach liquor. A systematic methodology is presented that includes four key steps: leaching, separation

Analysis of copper losses throughout wea

Dragana Ivšić-Bajčeta, Željko Kamberović

The previous inadequate treatment of off-gas in RTB Bor in Serbia has resulted in serious pollution of the environment and the possibly high losses of copper through the effluent flows. The project of New Copper Smelter RTB Bor, besides the new flash smelting furnace (FSF) and the reconstruction of Pierce-Smith converter (PSC), includes more effective effluent treatment. Paper presents an analysis

2020 Meshram Organic acid leaching of copper converter slag

Pratima Meshram, Uday Prakash

An innovative, economical, and environmentally sound hydrometallurgical process has been proposed for recovering Cu, Ni, and Co from copper-rich converter slag by organic acids. In the leaching experiments, the effects of organic acid concentrations, pulp density, temperature, and time were investigated. Optimum recovery of 99.1% Cu, 89.2% Ni, 94% Co, and 99.2% Fe was achieved in 9–10 h at 308 K (

Application driven recovery of precious metals from anthropogeni 2026 Next M

Peeyush Phogat, Meher Wan

Precious metals — gold (Au), silver (Ag), palladium (Pd), and platinum (Pt) — are indispensable enablers of modern electronic, catalytic, and energy technologies, yet their supply is increasingly constrained by geological scarcity, geopolitical concentration, and escalating environmental costs of primary mining. This manuscript presents a rigorous, application-centric assessment of precious metal

The Use of Acid Leaching to Recover Metals from Tailings: A Review

Valeria Maltrana, Jaime Morales

Mine tailings deposits are often overlooked by the industry, posing significant environmental challenges due to chemical hazards and inadequate maintenance. Nevertheless, such mineral deposits hold considerable economic potential for processing, and the adoption of innovative technologies may also address critical chemical and physical stability issues. Existing research has demonstrated the feasi

Zinc and Lead Metallurgical Slags as a Potential Source of Metal Recovery: A Review

Katarzyna Nowi ńska, Zdzisław Adamczyk

This article presents the mineralogical and chemical characteristics of zinc and lead smelting slags, with particular reference to the slags formed during the simultaneous production of Zn and Pb by the Imperial Smelting Process. These slags, because of the presence of many metals in their composition, mainly in the form of crystalline phases, are a valuable source for their extraction. Slags from

Electrochemical Approaches for the Recovery of Metals from Electronic Waste: A Critical Review

Varun Rai, Daobin Liu

Electronic waste (e-waste) management and recycling are gaining significant attention due to the presence of precious, critical, or strategic metals combined with the associated environmental burden of recovering metals from natural mines. Metal recovery from e-waste is being prioritized in metallurgical extraction owing to the fast depletion of natural mineral ores and the limited geographical av

A Brief Note on the Heap Leaching Technologies for the Recovery of Valuable Metals

Thriveni Thenepalli, Ramakrishna Chilakala

Heap leaching is a low-cost technology used in industrial mining to recover precious metals such as gold and uranium, along with several other highly sought after metals like copper, from their primary resources (ores and minerals). For many decades, there has been a growing demand for heap leaching due to its environmental benefits. Heap leaching provides mining operators with a benign, effective

Increasing the sustainability of copper electrorefining: Selective electrodeposition of antimony in the presence of bismuth from highly concentrated hydrochloric acid effluents

L. Hernández-Pérez, A. Muñoz-Pérez

Recovering critical materials from effluents of copper electrorefining would improve the circularity and sustainability of this industry. In this task, selectivity is crucial to separate metals present in multi-component electrolytes and obtain added value products. Electrodeposition can be used to recover metals individually when their reduction takes place at different potentials. Moreover, the

Membranes and minewater – waste or revenue stream

Stephen P. Chesters, Phil Morton

Membrane technologies are capable of treating mine waste waters to produce clean permeate water for reuse and a concentrate stream that can be used for valuable metals recovery. In this paper, the authors have researched and identified 363 mines with potential to use reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), and ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technology. There are sixty-seven operational membrane

The Bioleaching of Different Sulfide Concentrates Using Thermophilic Bacteria

F. TORRES, M.L. BL./~ZQUEZ

The bioleaching of different mineral sulfide concentrates with thermophilic bacteria (genus Sulfolobus) was studied to determine optimal conditions for metal recovery. The research focused on the influence of stirring methods and pulp density on dissolution rates. Findings revealed that pneumatic stirring was more effective at lower pulp densities, while orbital stirring yielded better results at

Conjoint bioleaching and zinc recovery from an iron oxide mineral residue by a continuous electrodialysis system

Adam J. Williamson, Karel Folens

Many metal refining processes generate low-grade mineral residues that are typically stored on landfills and responsible for inefficient land-use. While being of environmental concern, residual metals contained in these wastes can become an interesting secondary resource. A novel bio-hydrometallurgical route for recovery of Zn from such waste residues to a highly pure resource is proposed. The use

Silver recovery from an effluent generated by plating industry using a rotating cylinder electrode (RCE)

José L. Arredondo, Fernando F. Rivera

This paper concerns silver recovery from simulated rinse wastewater from the electrolytic cyanide silver process (1300 and 23,000 ppm of Ag(I) and CN/C0 , respectively, at pH 13 and 150 mS cm/C0 1 conductivity) using a laboratory scale RCE. Rotating disk electrode (RDE) studies revealed that at /C0 1.35 /C20 E /C20 /C0 1.15 V vs. SCE, the Ag(I)/Ag process is limited by mass transport. Global mas

THE EFFECT OF Mg-CONTENT ON THE EFFICIENCY OF METAL RECOVERY BY THE THERMO-MECHANICAL TREATMENT OF ALUMINIUM MELTING DROSS

István Illés, Balázs Hegedüs

Scrap based aluminium production is increasing rapidly, however it generates significant amounts of dross of high metallic content. It is common to treat the dross at high temperature in a rotary "converter" furnace to recover most of the entrapped metal. The efficiency of this process depends on many factors, and the Mg content of the metallic phase is important. We have examined an extensive ind

New Approach for Lead, Zinc and Copper Ions Elimination in Cyanidation Process to Improve the Quality of the Precipitate

José R. Parga, Jesús V. Valdés

The Merrill-Crowe zinc-precipitation process has been applied worldwide on a large number of operations for recovering gold and silver from cyanide solutions. However, in some of the large plants this precipitate is of low quality, because copper and especially lead are precipitated along with gold and silver resulting in a higher consumption of zinc powder, fluxes in the smelting of the precipita

Two stage leaching process for selective

Pratima Meshram, Hemant Somani

In this study, a closed loop two-stage leaching process has been experimentally and theoretically established for the selective dissolution of metals from electrode material of spent Ni-MH batteries. In the first step, baking parameters, such as temperature, acid concentration, and duration were optimized as 300 °C, 2 mL H2SO4 for 1.5 g of cathode powder, and 90 min. The thermodynamic feasibility

Spent NiMH batteries Characterization an

Daniel Assumpção Bertuol, Andréa Moura Bernardes

The growing concern about the environment, associated with the continuous increase in the production of electronic equipment, such as computers, cell phones, mobile devices and consequently batteries, has induced research to develop new technologies to recycle the huge numbers of spent batteries generated in the last few years. The amount of spent NiMH batteries will tend to grow continually over

Recoveries of Valuable Metals from Spent

Kivanc Korkmaz, Mahmood Alemrajabi

The recoveries of rare earth elements (REEs), nickel, and cobalt from hybrid electric vehicle batteries by sulfation, selective roasting, and water leaching have been studied. The cathode and anode materials of a Panasonic Prismatic Module nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery were used in the study. The optimal conditions for each step of the process were determined by performing lab-scale experime

Development of a recycling process for n

Tobias M üller, Bernd Friedrich

In a governmental funded 3-year research project, a recycling process for nickel-metal hydride batteries (NiMH) has been developed. The discarded batteries are currently utilized in the steel industry as a low-cost nickel source, while cobalt remains unmonetized and rare earth elements are typically lost in the slag. This study identifies that spent NiMH batteries can contain significant concentra

Characterization and leaching of NiCd an

L. Pietrelli, B. Bellomo

Since NiMH and NiCd batteries are still used in the electronic devices market, a treatment and recycling plant has many advantages both from the environmental and the economic points of view. Unfortunately, there is no relationship between shape, size and chemical composition of spent batteries, consequently the characterization and the leaching method of the starting material becomes an important

Sulfidation treatment of metal compounds involved in plating sludges

Dalibor Kuchara, Tadashi Fukuta

The present study is concerned with the sulfidation treatment of metal reagents of Cu(OH)2, ZnO or Ni(OH)2 as a means of metal resources recovery. The sulfidation was conducted separately for each reagent by contacting the reagent with Na2S solution (S2– to Me2+ molar ratio of 1.5) for 1 h to 7 d. The solid to liquid (S:L) ratio was varied from 1:250 to 1:25. In the case of ZnO and Ni(OH)2, the co

Hydrometallurgical Technology for Processing of Galvanic Sludges

O Yu Makoskaya, K S Kostromin

The problem of processing galvanic sludges, formed as a result of neutralization of technological solutions and wastewater containing heavy non-ferrous metals is considered. At present, sludges are transported to disposal area and are not used in any way. Typically, such sludges contain significant amounts of chromium and nickel, creating environmental hazards. Investigated sludge contains up to 6

Recovery of Tellurium from Waste Anode S

Chinmaya Kumar Sarangi, Abdul Rauf Sheik

Tellurium is used in cadmium tellurium-based solar cells. Mercury cadmium telluride is used as a sensing material for thermal imaging devices. High-purity tellurium is used in alloys for electronic applications. It is one of the important raw materials for solar energy applications. It is used as an alloying element in the production of low-carbon steel and copper alloys. Tellurium catalysts are u

COMPLEX SULPHIDE-BARITE ORE LEACHING IN FERRIC CHLORIDE SOLUTION

Miroslav Sokić, Vladislav Matković

The results of research on the leaching process of complex sulphide-barite ore were presented in this paper. The leaching process was carried out in a laboratory autoclave by ferric chloride solution. Considering that those minerals are represented in complex structural-textural relationships, it is not possible to extract lead, zinc, and copper minerals from ore by flotation methods. The obtained

SULPHIDE AND ION EXCHANGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR METAL RECOVERY AND WATER TREATMENT IN THE COPPER MINING INDUSTRY

Rick Lawrence, Raymond Philippe

This paper discusses the application of sulphide and ion exchange technologies for metal recovery and water treatment in the copper mining industry. The objective is to demonstrate the effectiveness of biogenic sulphide in precipitating copper and other base metals, contributing to both metal recovery and environmental control. Utilizing BioteQ's BioSulphide® technology, industrial implementations

Separate recovery of copper and zinc from acid mine drainage using biogenic sulfide

Erkan Sahinkaya, Murat Gungor

Precipitation of metals from acid mine drainage (AMD) using sulfide gives the possibility of selective recovery due to different solubility product of each metal. Using sulfate reducing bacteria to produce sulfide for that purpose is advantageous due to in situ and on-demand sulfide production. In this study, separate precipitation of Cu and Zn was studied using sulfide produced in anaerobic baffled re

Selective Sulphide Precipitation of Copper, Nickel and Zinc from Industrial Wastewater

Aysel Şen, Levent Kartal

Metal sulphide precipitation is a fast, easy and environmentally friendly method which provides to work in wide pH ranges and to reuse/recycle them in metal smelting processes. In this research, the selective sulphide precipitations (SSP) of copper, nickel and zinc from industrial wastewater were investigated by using Na2S as the sulphur resource. The effects of pH and free sulphide concentration

Recovery of Metals from Acid Mine Drainage

Eva Macingova, Alena Luptakova

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) poses a severe pollution problem attributed to current and past mining activities. This study aims to develop and optimize the process of selective sequential precipitation (SSP) for recovering metals from AMD, focusing on iron, copper, aluminum, zinc, and manganese. The methodology includes both abiotic and biological strategies for metal precipitation, using sodium hydro

Advances in biotreatment of acid mine dr

Henry H. Tabak, Richard Scharp

Acid mine drainage (AMD), an acidic metal-bearing wastewater, poses a severe pollution problem attributed to post mining activities. The metals usually encountered in AMD and considered of concern for risk assessment are arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese, zinc, copper and sulfate. The pollution generated by abandoned mining activities in the area of Butte, Montana has resulted in the designa

A new procedure for recovering heavy met

S. Heuss-Aßbichler, M. John

The treatment of heavy metal containing industrial wastewater is commonly associated with the generation of significant amounts of hydroxide sludge, leading to inefficient recovery of valuable non-ferrous metals. This study aims to develop novel procedures for the treatment of wastewater containing heavy metals like Cu, Ni, Zn, Mn, Pb, Sn, Pd, and Ag, reaching concentrations of up to 25 g/l. We em

Zinc and Copper Recovery from Smelter Waste Stream Case Study

Frank Su, Songlin Ye

Recycling valuable metals from waste streams has become increasingly important to the mining and smelting industry in China due to resource depletion and environmental concerns. Predicated on multiple large scale metal recovery operations designed by BQE Water at active mines in the Jiangxi Province of China, this paper presents a case study demonstrating recovery of zinc and copper from the waste

Placas De Circuito Impresso Caracterizac

Artur, João

This work has the purpose of characterizing four different lots of printed circuit boards (PCBs) of the scrap market, identifying and quantifying metals in them to establish a relation with the value associated with each of the lots. To achieve the proposed objective, comminution was performed in a cutting mill, followed by analysis in stereoscope to verify the release of metals. Subsequently, two

Chemical and Phisical Characterization o

Author A, Author B

The combination between the high volume of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and the increased planned obsolescence makes it necessary to think about alternative ways to dispose of these wastes, such as recycling followed by metal recovery, without affecting the environment and human health. In order to do so, it is essential to understand the nature of the waste-constituent materia

Caracterizacao De Placas De Circuito Imp

Marcos Paulo Kohler Caldas, Viviane Tavares de Moraes

A recuperação de metais presentes em equipamentos eletroeletrônicos tem atraído interesse em virtude de novas e diferentes tecnologias que visam a reutilização desses elementos químicos em novos processos produtivos. A recuperação de metais das placas de circuito impresso tem atraído o interesse das empresas, pois, ao mesmo tempo que produz bons resultados do ponto de vista econômico, também se pr

Caracterizacao De Placas De Circuito Imp (1)

Marcos Paulo Kohler Caldas, Lucas Moraes de Sousa

O desenvolvimento da indústria de eletroeletrônicos associado ao barateamento dos produtos tem reduzido a vida útil de equipamentos levando a uma geração elevada de resíduos de equipamentos eletroeletrônicos (REEE). Um componente desse resíduo são as placas de circuito impresso, que possuem em sua composição altos teores de metais, que podem ser recuperados através de processos de reciclagem. O pr

Solvent Extraction as a Method of Recove

Karolina Pianowska, Joanna Kluczka

Platinum group metals (PGMs) are a group of six metals with high market value and key importance to many industrial sectors. Due to their low prevalence in the Earth’s crust and high demand, these metals have been recognized as critical materials for many years. Along with economic development, the natural resources of the platinum group metals are gradually depleting, which is accompanied by the

Separation and recovery of some platinum

R.J. Kriek, W.J. Engelbrecht

Selective photoreduction using the semiconductor TiO2 under UV irradiation has been investigated as a method for the recovery and separation of platinum group metals (PGMs) including rhodium, palladium, and platinum. This study aimed to determine the effects of pH value and the concentration of the sacrificial reducing agent (ethanol) on the reduction rates of Rh(III), Pd(II), and Pt(IV) ions in v

Review of the Application of Ion Exchang

Aleksandar N. Nikoloski, Kwang-Loon Ang

Platinum-group metals (PGMs) have become one of the most sought after rare metals in this modern age of science and they will continue to increase in importance as a result of their advantageous use in clean-air technology. This review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of ion exchange resins for the recovery of PGMs from hydrochloric acid solutions, a significant method given the increasing deman

Recovery of platinum group elements from

Ayanda Maria Ngcephe

The aim of this study was to recover the platinum group elements (PGE) from recycled or waste material using hydrometallurgical techniques. The waste material that was investigated for the possible isolation of PGE is a spent automotive catalytic converter sample, ERM®-EBS504 which is a certified reference material for Pt, Pd and Rh. Surface analysis on the catalyst sample was performed using the

Recovery of Palladium II and Platinum IV

Zuzanna Wiecka, Martyna Rzelewska-Piekut

Recovery of platinum group metals (PGM) from complex aqueous solutions generated as a result of leaching of various spent materials (e.g., spent automotive converters) is a vital issue in the context of the circular economy. In this study pyridinium derivatives containing an imidoamide or imine moiety (i.e., 3-[1-(2-ethylhexyloxyimine)methane]-1-propylpyridinium chloride, 3-[1-(decyloxyimine)metha

Mini Review on the Use of Liquid Membran

Francis Moyo, Roman Tandlich

The current mini-review focuses on the use of liquid membranes in the platinum group metal (PGM/PGMs) extraction from various types of wastewaters to prevent environmental pollution; and for the metal recovery to address the scarcity of the PGMs in the industrial cycles. The bulk liquid membranes have been used to extract PGMs from acidic aqueous media with recoveries of up to 96.3 ± 2.5% of the o

Hydrometallurgical treatment of used pri

T. Havlik, D. Orac

The hydrometallurgical route of copper and tin extraction from printed circuit boards (PCB) of used personal computers after thermal pretreatment is discussed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of different thermal treatments and their impact on metal extraction. To achieve this, PCB fractions were crushed and sorted into different sizes and subjected to thermal pretreatment

A preliminary categorization of end of l

Masahiro Oguchi, Shinsuke Murakami

End-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has recently received attention as a secondary source of metals. This study examined characteristics of end-of-life EEE as secondary metal resources to consider efficient collection and metal recovery systems according to the specific metals and types of EEE. We constructed an analogy between natural resource development and metal recovery from

Separation of zinc from manganese magnes

Hossein Kamran Haghighi, Davood Moradkhani

A systematic study for the separation of zinc from solutions containing zinc, manganese, iron, cadmium and magnesium as sulfates was developed after a batch countercurrent extraction, followed by scrubbing and stripping. In the first step, batch countercurrent experiments were carried out on a synthetic solution containing 14.60 g/L Zn(II), 6.4 g/L Mn(II), 2 g/L Mg(II), 819 mg/L Ca(II) and 60 mg/L

THE OUTOTEC NICKEL MATTE CHLORIDE LEACHING PROCESS

K. Haavanlammi, K. Valkama

The Outotec nickel matte chloride leaching process is especially suitable for small capacity stand-alone nickel refineries. The matte is leached with hydrochloric acid and oxygen in multiple steps in atmospheric OKTOP® reactors. Oxygen feed prevents reductive conditions and hydrogen formation in the leaching process. A sufficiently high acid concentration keeps the iron dissolved in the solution.

Fungal Leaching of Metals from Electronic Scrap

S. Ilyas, J.-C. Lee

The rapid increase in the production of electronic waste necessitates efficient recycling strategies, especially for recovery of valuable materials. This study aims to evaluate the potential of fungal leaching, particularly through the strain Penicillium chrysogenum, to leach metals from electronic scrap under various leaching modes, including one-step bioleaching, two-step bioleaching, spent medi

LEACHING BEHAVIOR OF THE ROASTED NICKEL CALCINE

D. Yu, T.A. Utigard

Sulfation roasting of nickel concentrate to generate water-soluble metal sulfates was investigated as an alternative process to smelting for the recovery of valuable metals. The kinetics of dissolution of various species of the calcine in three leachants was studied; hot water, dilute HCl, and concentrated HCl. The results indicated that dissolution of sulfates by hot water at 90 oC is achieved wi

Effect of LixTRA 118 Leaching Aid on Heap Leaching of Copper Ores – Column Study

M.E. Mitshiabo, K.C. Sole

This study investigates the performance of the BASF leaching aid, LixTRA 118, in improving the heap leaching process of copper ores, focusing specifically on its effects on metal recovery and acid consumption. Despite surfactants enhancing metal extraction in porous media, their application in heap leaching remains limited due to potential incompatibilities with downstream processes. The study inc

Recovery of nickel powder from copper bleed electrolyte of an Indian copper smelter by electrolysis

Archana Agrawal, D. Bagchi

When nickel concentration increases in the copper sulphate electrolyte during electrolysis, it starts electrodepositing on the copper cathode thereby affecting the purity of the copper. In order to produce high quality copper cathodes with less than 1 ppm Ni, it became necessary to bleed-off large volumes of foul electrolyte contaminated with nickel and other impurities. The study reported in this

Comparison of electric arc furnace dust

Thomas Suetens, Bart Klaasen

Multiple methods exist to treat electric arc furnace dust (EAFD), aiming at high metal recovery and low landfilling needs. However, a technology that is energy efficient and recovers both Zn and Fe has only recently been developed to a commercial scale with the Rotary Hearth Furnace. Various other technologies have been proposed as alternatives to the historically preferred Waelz Kiln process. Thi

Selective recovery of Zn and Fe from spe

Gábor Csicsovszki, Tamás Kékesi

Although the environmental industry has developed many modern techniques to treat spent pickling liquors, including also the membrane separation, still neither of them can be applied alone for the efficient treatment of HCl containing spent pickling solutions originating from hot dip zinc galvanizing plants. In this area, the most frequently applied treatment is still the common precipitation–filt

Application of volumetric electrodes to

D. MOWLA, H. OLIVE

An experimental and theoretical study is described of a fixed bed electrochemical reactor with perpendicular current and electrolytic flows. A two-dimensional model with different sets of boundary conditions has been developed for limiting current conditions. The influence on the potential distribution in the solution phase of different parameters, namely solution velocity, particles diameter, axi

2012 Modeling Particulate Bed Electrode

R.Thilakavathi, N.Balasubramanian

A theoretical model has been developed to predict bed thickness and hydrodynamic behavior of conducting particles in an expanded bed used for heavy metal removal. The objective of this study was to construct a two-dimensional model to represent particle behavior in an expanded bed electrode while critically examining the effect of particle size on metal recovery. The methodology involved developin

Removal of Pyrrhotite from High Sulphur

Removal of Pyrrhotite from High Sulphur (1)

Pilot scale demonstrations of innovative

Solvent Extraction Separation and Recove

Solvent extraction a potential tool for

Etude de la lixiviation en tas du minerai cupro-cobaltifère dans les mines de la Province du Katanga en République Démocratique du Congo

Patrick MBWEB KATSHIL

The extraction of metal ore in the poor leads us to look for techniques and methods to extract a good amount of it (metal) low cost without passing the gangue in the solution. For this purpose, to determine leaching parameters seen to recover the metal in a low grade ore, we proceeded to test leaching guidelines heap ore preceded by size analysis and chemical different slices to determine the wor