A process for upgrading waste powders of the mining industry containing iron oxides is described, which includes preparing a mixture containing powder based on iron oxides, an aqueous dispersion of a thermosetting resin and optionally carbon powder, and a catalyst of acidic nature; kneading the mixture at a temperature between 5 and 100° C. to form a homogeneous paste, and granulating such homogeneous paste at a temperature between 100 and 300° C., thus obtaining granules of powder based on iron oxides and optionally carbon powder bound by the resin that has been polymerized.

A material feeding apparatus is disclosed. An apparatus for removing a surface oxide of a metal material and feeding the metal material to a melting furnace, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, includes: a housing including a material dropping chamber for feeding and discharging the metal material and a material etching chamber for performing a plasma etching process; and a pretreatment casing configured to reciprocate between the material dropping chamber and the material etching chamber in the housing, wherein the pretreatment casing receives the metal material from the material dropping chamber to store the metal material, moves to the material etching chamber to plasma-etch a surface oxide layer of the stored metal material, and then returns to the material dropping chamber to drop the etched metal material into the melting furnace.

A system and method for dismantling components of electronic media electronic storage devices such as hard disk drives, solid state drives and hybrid hard drives. The components are dismantled in a nondestructive manner so as to be capable of reuse. First devices loosen the various components of the storage device, Second devices are provided for removing components from the storage device. A holding chassis receives the storage device, and moves the storage device for engagement with the first and second devices. A mechanism may be provided for destroying the data containing portion of the electric storage device when it is removed from the storage device. A database of information concerning past and current storage devices including their configurations, component locations and screw/fastener locations is provided along with a scanning system for retrieving information about the storage device being introduced into the system. The scanned information and information from the database is used to control and position the first and second devices and holding chassis.

The invention provides an integrated separator system for the preconcentration of a material comprising one or more grizzly bars and one or more electrodes which provide a high voltage pulse (HVP) discharge to the material. The invention also provides a process for preconcentration of a material preferably a mineral within a rock which comprises: providing the material into an integrated separator system comprising one or more grizzly bars and one or more electrodes which are capable of providing at least one high voltage pulse discharge(s) to the material; applying one or more high voltage pulse discharge(s) to the material as the material is travelling along the grizzly bar(s) to preferentially disintegrate the particles containing mineral grains of high conductivity/permittivity; separating the disintegrated particles by way of the grizzly bar(s) resulting in the separation of the feed material into low grade (oversize) and high grade (undersize) products; and wherein the disintegrated particles from step b) pass through a screening element for further treatment. The present invention also relates to a process for comminution of a material.

The invention provides an integrated separator system for the preconcentration of a material comprising one or more grizzly bars and one or more electrodes which provide a high voltage pulse (HVP) discharge to the material. The invention also provides a process for preconcentration of a material preferably a mineral within a rock which comprises: providing the material into an integrated separator system comprising one or more grizzly bars and one or more electrodes which are capable of providing at least one high voltage pulse discharge(s) to the material; applying one or more high voltage pulse discharge(s) to the material as the material is travelling along the grizzly bar(s) to preferentially disintegrate the particles containing mineral grains of high conductivity/permittivity; separating the disintegrated particles by way of the grizzly bar(s) resulting in the separation of the feed material into low grade (oversize) and high grade (undersize) products; and wherein the disintegrated particles from step b) pass through a screening element for further treatment. The present invention also relates to a process for comminution of a material.

The invention enables “green” and “conflict-free” acquisition of critical minerals via refinement from aqueous sources. These advantages are impactful in applications including refinement of rare materials such as certain metals, especially metals necessary for production of energy storage devices required to advance environmental goals, such as in the Paris climate agreement. The inventive concepts include economically viable approaches to refinement, as well as economically viable apparatuses. In some approaches, valuable materials such as metals are refined from salts obtained from aqueous sources. Power required to refine materials is provided by renewable energy sources. Real world implementations involve co-locating a dissociative reactor with a geothermal energy plant near an aquifer with salt(s) therein. Refined minerals are produced on site. Practice of the disclosed techniques reduce or eliminate many negative environmental impacts such as those incurred by legacy mining based techniques.

Lead is recovered from lead paste of a lead acid battery in a continuous and electrochemical lead recovery process. In especially preferred aspects, lead paste is processed to remove residual sulfates, and the so treated lead paste is subjected to a thermal treatment step that removes residual moisture and reduces lead dioxide to lead oxide. Advantageously, such pretreatment will avoid lead dioxide accumulation and electrolyte dilution.

Disclosed is an apparatus that is an attrition mill for grinding or comminuting ores, mine wastes, and radioactive wastes some of which may comprise metals, which may include uranium and/or cesium and/or mercury and/or thorium and/or rare earth elements. Also disclosed are processes that employ the apparatus for combined grinding and optionally leaching metals from ores and wastes. Some such methods comprise an optional step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with a solid inorganic base with water addition or with an aqueous inorganic base, follow by a step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with an aqueous inorganic acid with or without leaching salt addition, to solubilize the metals present in the ore or the waste. The disclosed apparatus and methods, in some embodiments, enable efficient grinding and attrition of ores substrates and mine wastes even without need for grinding media.

A method of processing a pyrite-containing slurry is disclosed. The method includes removing pyrite from the pyrite-containing slurry and forming (i) an inert stream and (ii) a pyrite-containing material, with the pyrite-containing slurry including tailings from a tailings dam or an ore processing plant. The method also includes leaching a metal sulfide-containing material and the pyrite-containing material with a leach liquor and microbes. A method of leaching a metal sulfide-containing material is also disclosed. A flotation circuit for an ore processing plant for a metal sulfide-containing material is also disclosed.

The invention relates to a method of separating and extracting rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste and regenerating rare-earth polishing powder, which is characterized by: firstly, process the waste powder with first acid leaching, alkali roasting, and second acid leaching to separate and extract rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste to obtain the leaching solution of rare-earth chloride; secondly, precipitate from the leaching solution with ammonia to remove impurities and hydrochloric acid solution to obtain the purified solution of rare-earth chloride; thirdly, co-precipitate from the solution acquired in the second step with hydrofluoric acid, ammonium bicarbonate, and dispersant to obtain the lanthanum cerium fluoro-carbonate; and finally, after drying, two-stage high-temperature calcination, and ball milling, the regenerated rare-earth polishing powder with decent polishing performance can be obtained. The total leaching efficiency of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste of the present invention reaches more than 95%, and the total recovery efficiency of rare-earths reaches more than 93%, which realizes the efficient separation, extraction, and regeneration of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste.