A process for selectively extracting cobalt from a composition comprising cobalt and one or more other metal elements, wherein the process comprises the following steps: a) a step of forming a precipitate consisting of a coordination complex comprising cobalt, by bringing the solution into contact with at least one aromatic compound comprising at least two nitrogen atoms in its ring; b) a step of recovering the precipitate.

The present invention is related to a polymer membrane for the selective extraction of cobalt (II) ions as well as a method for extracting cobalt (II) ions using said polymer membrane.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods that can present low-temperature recycling of rare metals from spent electrodes. An exemplary method of recycling a battery comprises: mixing, in a solution, at least an electrode material and a first solvent; reducing the electrode material in the solution to create a metallic material; and extracting the metallic material from the solution.

Methods of enhancing recovery of value sulfide and/or precious metal-bearing minerals from an ore containing such minerals as well as Mg-silicate, slime forming minerals, and/or clay by adding a froth phase modifier agent to the ore, and subjecting the ore to a froth flotation process performed under acidic conditions, are provided herein.

A method for recovering lithium from lithium ion battery scrap according to this invention comprises subjecting lithium ion battery scrap to a calcination step, a crushing step, and a sieving step sequentially carried out, wherein the method comprises, between the calcination step and the crushing step, between the crushing step and the sieving step, or after the sieving step, a lithium dissolution step of bringing the lithium ion battery scrap into contact with water and dissolving lithium contained in the lithium ion battery scrap in the water to obtain a lithium-dissolved solution; a lithium concentration step of solvent-extracting lithium ions contained in the lithium-dissolved solution and stripping them to concentrate the lithium ions to obtain a lithium concentrate; and a carbonation step of carbonating the lithium ions in the lithium concentrate to obtain lithium carbonate.

A method for recovering lithium according to this invention comprises separating sodium from a lithium-containing solution containing lithium ions and sodium ions to recover lithium, wherein the method comprises a solvent extraction step including: at least three-stage extraction process having a first extraction process, a second extraction process, and a third extraction process; and a lithium back extraction stage of back extracting the lithium ions from a solvent that have undergone the at least three-stage extraction process; and wherein, in the extraction process, the solvent undergoes the first extraction process, the second extraction process, and the third extraction process in this order, and a solution as the lithium-containing solution undergoes the respective processes in opposite order to the order of the solvent.

Provided is a solvent extraction method that allows selectively separating magnesium from an acidic aqueous solution of sulfuric acid. The solvent extraction method includes: bringing an acidic aqueous solution of sulfuric acid containing nickel, cobalt, and magnesium in contact with an organic solvent to extract the magnesium into the organic solvent; and using the organic solvent produced by diluting an extractant made of alkylphosphonic acid ester with a diluent. A concentration of the extractant is set to 40 volume % or more and 60 volume % or less and a pH of the acidic aqueous solution of sulfuric acid is set to 1.5 or more and 2.0 or less, or the concentration of the extractant is set to 20 volume % or more and 50 volume % or less and the pH of the acidic aqueous solution of sulfuric acid is set to 2.0 or more and 2.5 or less.

A method of inhibiting degradation of an extractant by utilizing several auxiliary means in the DSX process: includes (a) preparing adjustment of the concentration of an extractant of a DSX solvent to a certain range; (b) extracting a metal contained in a pregnant leached solution by adjusting the ratio of the extractant and the diluent in the DSX solvent to a certain range; (c) measuring the pH of the aqueous phase solution by separating mixture into the aqueous phase solution and the organic phase solvent using a settler after step of extracting; (d) controlling the pH by adding soda ash (Na.sub.2CO.sub.3) so as to maintain the pH of the aqueous phase solution to be 3 to 7; and (e) scrubbing with scrubbing solution having a zinc concentration of 2 to 20 g/L by zinc sulfate (ZnSO.sub.4) to remove the manganese from the organic phase solvent containing the extracted metal.

Provided is a method of inhibiting degradation of an extractant by an anhydrous environment avoiding and metal stripping, the method including the steps of: (a) stopping the addition of soda ash (Na.sub.2CO.sub.3) to an extracting reaction tank; (b) starting solution recirculation and stopping solvent recirculation of a settler; (c) supplying a solvent from a loaded organic tank to a scrubbing reaction tank, in which the scrubbing reaction tank, stripping reaction tank and extracting reaction tank are connected for circulation and operating stirrers of the scrubbing reaction tank, stripping reaction tank and extracting reaction tank; (d) supplying a sulfuric acid solution having a controlled concentration with a diluting solution to the stripping reaction tank; (e) transferring the solvents of the settler, the loaded organic tank and all the pipes to the scrubbing reaction tank; and (f) stopping the step (e) and initiating solvent recirculation.

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).