A sublimation/distillation apparatus including a crucible with an open end, a heating device thermally coupled to the crucible, an actively cooled collection substrate disposed above the open end of the crucible, and a vacuum chamber housing the crucible, the heating device, and the actively cooled collection substrate.

A method of leaching copper from a porphyry copper ore body within a subsurface volume of rock can include forming an injection well in the ore body and stimulating the injection well in a hybrid stimulation phase including a first hydraulic fracturing phase at an injection rate and pressure exceeding Sh.sub.min to form hydraulic fractures that intersect with a first set of natural fractures; a first hydroshearing phase holding the injection rate until hydraulic fracture growth is allowed to arrest; mapping the first set of natural fractures using a micro-seismic array to form a stimulated natural fracture map; and emplacing a proppant in the fractures. A production well can be drilled into the stimulated propped fractures, and the production well can be stimulated in a second hydroshearing phase to stimulate a portion of the first set of natural fractures intersecting with the production well.

The present disclosure is directed at apparatus and methods for rare earth element recovery and purification. The apparatus and methods are preferably configured to apply to column-based chromatographic separation and purification of rare earth element(s) and recovery of rare earth element(s) from a mobile phase containing rare-earth element chelating agent(s).

The present invention employs continuous ion exchange processes in binary configurations during the refinement of rare earth elements to convert an input stream of mixed rare earth elements into two or more separate streams of isolated rare earth elements. The present invention leverages the different chemical properties and behaviors of heavier and lighter REEs to separate them in continuous ion exchange devices. The present invention applies to any rare earth feed stream in aqueous solution that is relatively pure. Two-phase solid-liquid systems are used herein.

A method of extracting a rare earth element from a carbonaceous material deposit utilizing a ligand to capture the rare earth element includes crushing the carbonaceous material deposit to form a carbonaceous material particulate and forming a first pregnant leachate including the carbonaceous material particulate and a ligand. The method further includes extracting the metal impurities via an ion exchange or floatation to form a reduced leachate and forming a second pregnant leachate comprising the reduced leachate and the ligand. The method also includes extracting the rare earth element from the reduced leachate via an ion exchange or floatation, capturing the rare earth element in the binding site of the ligand, and desorbing the rare earth element from the ligand.

A method for processing a lithium-ion battery waste by hydrometallurgical processing of the lithium-ion battery waste to obtain a leachate in which at least cobalt and nickel are dissolved, the method comprising: a hydrometallurgical processing step of adding at least one compound (1) selected from the group consisting of ammonia and a salt thereof, and an amine compound and a salt thereof to the lithium-ion battery waste and mixing them to obtain the leachate in which at least the cobalt and the nickel are dissolved; and a solid-liquid separation step of removing at least a part of metals not dissolved in the leachate by solid-liquid separation after the hydrometallurgical processing step.