Disclosed are methods and systems for processing clinker containing iron and non-ferrous metals for extraction of those metals. The processing comprises pretreatment of clinker resulting in a removable carbon-containing foam phase, forming a metal-containing cake. Melting of the cake is then performed in the absence of air delivery and in the presence of carbon, resulting in phases of slag, metal, and matte. Melting may occur while maintaining a mass ratio of iron to carbon of no greater than 14:1, such that cast iron forms instead of sponge iron. The metal and matte phases, containing non-ferrous metals and iron, are then exposed to further dissolution, filtration, and salting out to extract the non-ferrous metals and iron. Byproducts of various stages of the process are also recycled into earlier stages or further processed to extract additional copper, iron, and other non-ferrous metals.

Materials and methods for precious metal recovery are disclosed. Usable leaching solutions are preferably aqueous based and include appropriate materials in sufficient quantities to solubilize and stabilize precious metal. Such materials typically include phosphoric acid and an oxidant material. Some or all of the oxidant material can be, in some instances, generated in-situ. The leaching solution is typically contacted with a substrate having a target precious metal, thereby solubilizing precious metal to form a stable, pregnant solution. The precious metal can then be recovered from the pregnant solution. In some instances, components of the leaching solution can be regenerated and reused in subsequent leaching.

A system and method for recycling metals from industrial waste using an electrodepositing technique. The method includes the steps of collecting the industrial waste, transporting, processing and digesting the waste in a solvent or acidic solution and then electrodepositing out the desired metals. Other processing steps may be used to prepare the industrial waste for electrodeposition and the process may be repeated on the digest solution, to obtain multiple metals.

The present invention relates to a process for recovering platinum group metals from a feed containing one or more precursor compounds of one or more platinum group metal ions, wherein the process comprises the steps of (i) supplying to a cathode compartment of an electrochemical cell equipped with a cathode comprising a gas diffusion electrode with a porous electrochemically active material, the feed containing the one or more precursor compounds to form a liquid phase in the cathode compartment, (ii) supplying a CO2 containing gas to the cathode compartment, (iii) applying a potential to the cathode which is such as to cause electrochemical reduction of the CO2 to CO, (iv) and recovering from the liquid phase precipitated particles of the one or more platinum group metals in clemental form.

The present invention provides a method of separating precious metals from anode sludge obtained from copper electrolysis, comprising (a) leaching the anode sludge in an aqueous sulfuric acid solution to remove leachable chlorides and to obtain a first leaching residue depleted of chlorides; (b) pressure leaching the first leaching residue to dissolve Ag and Se and to obtain a first filtrate comprising Ag and Se and a second leaching residue depleted of Ag and Se; and (c) leaching the second leaching residue with an aqueous hydrochloric acid solution to dissolve Au and PGMs to obtain a second filtrate comprising Au and PGMs and a final leaching residue.

The present invention relates to a method for the recovery of palladium from an aqueous solution, comprising the steps of: (A) providing a dispersion comprising an aqueous dispersing phase comprising palladium(II), at least one non-ionic surfactant and at least one compound bearing a beta-dithiocarbonyl group, so as to form a hydrophobic complex of palladium(II) with the compound bearing a beta-dithiocarbonyl group; (B) heating the dispersion resulting from step (A) to a temperature at least equal to its cloud point so as to obtain the phase separation between the aqueous dispersing phase and a dispersed phase rich in surfactant comprising at least a part of said hydrophobic complex; (C) separating the dispersed phase rich in surfactant from the aqueous dispersing phase resulting from step (B); and (D) recovering the hydrophobic complex of palladium(II) with the compound bearing a beta-dithiocarbonyl group.

The subject invention provides safe, environmentally-friendly, compositions and methods for extracting minerals and/or metals from ore. More specifically, the subject invention provides for bioleaching using a composition comprising one or more biosurfactant-producing microorganisms and/or microbial growth by-products. In specific embodiments, the composition comprises biosurfactant-producing yeasts and/or their growth by-products.

The main steps are as follows: purification, de-leading, recovery and filtration, dissolving lead, hot filtration, cooling filtration, washing and hot decomposition, silver is recycled as silver powder, lead was recovered in the form of red lead, yellow lead and chlorinated lead respectively. Compared to existing technologies, the invention adopts a wet process, the amount of waste gas and dust produced in the process of fire treatment is reduced; silver powder, red (yellow) lead and chloride lead were obtained, it can be sold as final product with high value-added features. The tail liquid produced by the process returns to the corresponding process respectively, and the tailless liquid is discharged. The pyrolysis flue gas returns to the lead removal process, flue gas treatment process is reduced, lead smoke pollution is avoided. This method has the characteristics of simple technics and pollution-free process.

A method of leaching a precious metal contained in decopperized anode slime includes, agitating and circulating a slurry at the same time, in carrying out hydrochloric acid oxidation leaching of the precious metal contained in the decopperized anode slime by adding a hydrochloric acid and an oxidant to the slurry of the decopperized anode slime, wherein in the circulating, the slurry is extracted from a lower portion of a tank and supplied again into an upper portion of the tank.

A method is disclosed for recovering gold from a gold-containing organic solution containing soluble gold. The method comprises contacting the gold-containing organic solution with an aqueous stripping solution in order to extract gold from the gold-containing organic solution into the aqueous stripping solution. The aqueous stripping solution containing gold is separated from the organic solution. The separated aqueous stripping solution containing gold is contacted with a reducing agent containing sodium metabisulphite, in order to reduce gold from the aqueous stripping solution.