Compositions and methods are provided that permit both recovery of at least two metals from industrial waste materials and control of the degree of relative recovery between the two metals. Industrial waste is initially treated with an acid and mixed for a defined period of time, and the extracted metals recovered from the resulting supernatant in subsequent steps. Surprisingly, the duration of this initial stirring period has been found to impact the relative degree of recovery of the two metals in a non-linear fashion.

A method for extracting secondary metal values from a sulfuric acid leachate is provided. The method includes providing a leachate which contains a primary metal and a plurality of secondary metals, wherein the primary metal is selected from the group consisting of Cu, Li and Ni and is derived from sulfuric acid leaching of an ore; passing the leachate through a first ion exchange resin which is selective to, and releasably binds, the plurality of secondary metals; stripping the plurality of secondary metals from the second or third ion exchange resins, thereby obtaining a first extract; and recovering the secondary metals from the first extract. In some embodiments, prior to passing the leachate through the first ion exchange resin, the leachate is passed through a second ion exchange resin which is selective to, and releasably binds, one of the plurality of secondary metals. The one of the secondary metals is then stripped from the second exchange resin, thereby obtaining a second extract, and the one of the secondary metals is recovered from the second extract.

A dross processing assembly includes a stirring station at which dross in a first dross recovery vessel is stirred and a pressing station at which previously stirred dross in a second dross recovery vessel is pressed simultaneously with the stirring of the dross in the first dross recovery vessel. The stirring station and the pressing station may be commonly housed in an enclosure. A conveyor system may advance dross recovery vessels through the dross processing assembly for continuous dross processing.

A process for treating spent lithium ion batteries to recover metals is disclosed. The process includes discharging the spent lithium ion batteries. The discharged lithium ion batteries are shredded and roasted in a furnace to produce roasted material. The roasted material is sieved to separate a coarser fraction and a finer fraction. The coarser fraction comprises aluminium chips and copper chips. The finer fraction is further treated to recover copper, cobalt, and nickel sequentially with a purity of 99.3-99.9%. The process also recovers manganese as manganese dioxide and lithium as lithium carbonate. The process does not generate any solid waste as all the metals and by-products such as carbon powder and gypsum cake are saleable.

A method of processing red mud comprising: heating red mud to a predetermined temperature; grinding the red mud to a predetermined particle size; and physically extracting iron components from the red mud; physically extracting aluminum components from the red mud, said physically extracting of aluminum components being separate from the physically extracting of iron components, wherein the steps of physically extracting iron components and physically extracting aluminum components are performed without requiring addition of chemical additives to the red mud.

A process for extracting values from lithium slag comprising: (a) hydrothermally treating lithium slag with an aqueous solution of an alkaline compound at selected temperature and duration; (b) performing an ion exchange step on the alkaline treated lithium slag; and (c) recovering values selected from the group consisting of aluminium compounds, silicon compounds and compounds containing silicon and aluminium.

The invention relates to a method for recycling used lithium batteries containing the steps: (a) digestion of comminuted material (10), which contains comminuted components of electrodes of lithium batteries, using concentrated sulphuric acid (12) at a digestion temperature (T.sub.A) of at least 100 C., in particular at least 140 C., so that waste gas (14) and a digestion material (16) are produced, (b) discharge of the waste gas (14) and (c) wet chemical extraction of at least one metallic component of the digestion material (16).

Described herein is a method for recycling aluminum alloy wheels. The method includes the steps of providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels of a particular alloy; fragmenting a quantity of the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments; subjecting the plurality of fragments to shot blasting to remove surface impurities from the plurality of fragments to produce a plurality of shot blasted pieces; separating the plurality of shot blasted pieces into a plurality of larger shot blasted pieces and a plurality of smaller shot blasted pieces; and, estimating a composition of the plurality of larger shot blasted pieces by selecting multiple shot blasted pieces from the plurality of smaller shot blasted pieces and then measuring the composition of the multiple shot blasted pieces.

A system for processing red mud comprising: a first heating section controlled to heat red mud to a first temperature; a second heating section controlled to heat the red mud to a second temperature lower than the first temperature; a crusher configured to grind the red mud to a predetermined particle size; and one or more separators for physically extracting at least iron and aluminum from the red mud.

A method of making a zeolite comprises: adding a zeolite seed to a leach solution containing silicon and aluminum; and heating the leach solution to obtain the zeolite. The leach solution can be made by mixing coal ash with a basic stream, thereby creating (i) a leach solution containing silicon and aluminum, and (ii) leached ash; and separating the leach solution from the leached ash.