Liquid treatment apparatus comprises at least two chambers being first and second chambers through which a fluid can flow. The two chambers are separated by at least one choke nozzle which has an entrance in the first chamber and an exit in the second chamber. The choke nozzle comprises a converging section at its entrance, a throat section, a backward-facing step immediately after the throat section, and an exit section at its exit wherein the exit section diverges from the step. Similarly constructed mixing nozzles may be included in the apparatus. The apparatus is especially useful in processes requiring a gas to be entrained in a fluid so that the gas is in the form of very small bubbles that do not tend to coalesce and flash off such as in the dissolution of gold and other precious metals from ore and in the removal of arsenic from an ore.

Methods of recovering rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium from coal are described. The coal is dissolved in a first solvent to dissolve organic material in the coal and create a slurry containing coal ash enriched with rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium. The enriched coal ash is separated from the first solvent. Residual organic material is removed from the coal ash. The rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium can then be recovered from the coal ash. The coal ash is mixed with an acid stream that dissolves the rare earth elements, thereby creating (i) a leachate containing the rare earth elements and (ii) leached ash. The leachate is heated to obtain acid vapor and an acid-soluble rare earth concentrate. The acid-soluble rare earth concentrate can be fed to a hydrometallurgical process to separate and purify the rare earth elements.

Methods of recovering rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium from coal are described. The coal is dissolved in a first solvent to dissolve organic material in the coal and create a slurry containing coal ash enriched with rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium. The enriched coal ash is separated from the first solvent. Residual organic material is removed from the coal ash. The rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium can then be recovered from the coal ash. The coal ash is mixed with an acid stream that dissolves the rare earth elements, thereby creating (i) a leachate containing the rare earth elements and (ii) leached ash. The leachate is heated to obtain acid vapor and an acid-soluble rare earth concentrate. The acid-soluble rare earth concentrate can be fed to a hydrometallurgical process to separate and purify the rare earth elements.

The present invention relates to rare earth metallurgy, in particular a method for recovering scandium from the red mud byproduct of alumina production. The method includes repulping red mud, sorption leaching scandium therefrom with the use of an ion-exchange sorbing agent to obtain a rich-in-scandium ion exchanger and depleted-in-scandium pulp, desorbing scandium with a solution of sodium hydrocarbonate to obtain a desorbed ion exchanger which is returned to the sorption leaching stage and a solution of industrial reclaim scandium which is transferred to obtain a deposited concentrated scandium, wherein scandium is continuously sorption-leached from red mud pulp in the phosphorous-containing ion exchanger in a countercurrent mode upon direct contact of the pulp with the ion exchanger, scandium is desorbed from the organic phase of the ion exchanger by a solution with a concentration of Na.sub.2CO.sub.3 of 200-450 g/dm.sup.3 to obtain industrial reclaim scandium, from which a scandium concentrate is recovered.

The present invention relates to rare earth metallurgy, in particular a method for recovering scandium from the red mud byproduct of alumina production. The method includes repulping red mud, sorption leaching scandium therefrom with the use of an ion-exchange sorbing agent to obtain a rich-in-scandium ion exchanger and depleted-in-scandium pulp, desorbing scandium with a solution of sodium hydrocarbonate to obtain a desorbed ion exchanger which is returned to the sorption leaching stage and a solution of industrial reclaim scandium which is transferred to obtain a deposited concentrated scandium, wherein scandium is continuously sorption-leached from red mud pulp in the phosphorous-containing ion exchanger in a countercurrent mode upon direct contact of the pulp with the ion exchanger, scandium is desorbed from the organic phase of the ion exchanger by a solution with a concentration of Na.sub.2CO.sub.3 of 200-450 g/dm.sup.3 to obtain industrial reclaim scandium, from which a scandium concentrate is recovered.

A method and arrangement for recovering lithium hydroxide from a mineral containing lithium, by pulping the raw material containing lithium in the presence of water and an alkali metal carbonate, leaching the obtained slurry twice, first at an elevated temperature, and secondly in an aqueous solution containing an alkali earth metal hydroxide, separating the thus obtained slurry into solids and a solution containing lithium hydroxide, the latter being purified, whereby lithium hydroxide monohydrate can be recovered from the purified solution by crystallising, and finally separating the solution obtained during the crystallization from the process and recycling it to one or more of the previous process steps.

Described herein are methods of recovering a target ion, such as lithium, from earth materials. The methods include leaching the target ion from an earth material such as a clay to form a target solution and extracting the target ion from the dilute lithium solution using a extraction process selective for the target ion to yield a concentrate which can be converted to a product.

Described herein are methods of recovering a target ion, such as lithium, from earth materials. The methods include leaching the target ion from an earth material such as a clay to form a target solution and extracting the target ion from the dilute lithium solution using a extraction process selective for the target ion to yield a concentrate which can be converted to a product.

A solution for leaching metals from clay containing ore and a method of leaching ore is described. The solution comprises a cyanide; a wetting agent; and a clay stabilizing polymer.

A solution for leaching metals from clay containing ore and a method of leaching ore is described. The solution comprises a cyanide; a wetting agent; and a clay stabilizing polymer.