The present invention is a method for treating an alloy, by which a solution that contains nickel and/or cobalt is obtained from an alloy that contains copper, zinc, and nickel and/or cobalt, said method comprising: a leaching process wherein a leachate is obtained by subjecting the alloy to a leaching treatment by means of an acid in the coexistence of a sulfurizing agent; a reduction process wherein the leachate is subjected to a reduction treatment with use of a reducing agent; and an ion exchanging process wherein a solution that contains nickel and/or cobalt is obtained by bringing a solution, which has been obtained in the reduction process, into contact with an amino phosphoric acid-based chelate resin, thereby having zinc adsorbed on the amino phosphoric acid-based chelate resin.

Processing schemes for the extraction and/or separation of rare earth elements (REEs) from rare earth containing products such as rare earth mineral ore bodies and intermediate products derived from rare earth mineral ore bodies. The processing schemes may be applied independently or in various combinations to produce end-products that have a very high purity with respect to REEs, including high value critical REEs. The processes may include acid digestion, formation of rare earth oxalate compounds, metathesizing of rare earth oxalate compounds, selective precipitation and/or solvent extraction to form the high purity REE end products.

A method for extracting rare earth elements (REEs) from a REE hyperaccumulator, including: subjecting the REE hyperaccumulator to microwave-assisted digestion to obtain a REE extract; subjecting the REE extract to absorption with a chelating resin and elution to obtain a purified REE solution; and subjecting the purified REE solution to precipitation and calcination to obtain high-purity rare earth compound.

A method of leaching copper from a heap of ore which includes an ore agglomeration step, an ore stacking step wherein agglomerated ore is stacked to form a heap, a curing step, a leach step, and a rinse step, wherein, during the ore agglomeration step the ore is contacted with an acidified solution, nitrates or nitrites, and chloride, to create an oxidative environment prior to the leach step.

Despite the abundance of scandium, its commercial applications continue to be limited by the absence of reliable, secure, stable and long-term production. The subject-matter disclosed herein provides for a method for extracting Rare Earth Elements (REE), scandium and/or Rare-Earth Oxides (REO) from ore and mineral concentrates, the method comprising: providing Rare Earth Elements (REE) and/or scandium bearing feedstock; a high-pressure caustic (HPC) leaching step, comprising leaching the feedstock in an alkali solution at a first temperature for a target period of time and at a given pressure to produce a leachate slurry; extracting a solid residue from the leachate slurry; leaching of the solid residue in a mineral acid to form a primary leach solution; extracting scandium and/or REE from the primary leach solution; and/or precipitating REE remaining in the raffinate to form a mixed REE-carbonate to thereby facilitate the extraction of REO.

A system for recovering rare earth elements from coal ash includes a leaching reactor, an ash dryer downstream of the leaching reactor, and a roaster downstream of the ash dryer that is cooperatively connected to both the leaching reactor and the ash dryer. Coal ash is mixed with an acid stream such that rare earth elements present in the coal ash are dissolved in the acid stream, 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. Mixing of the coal ash with the acid stream can occur in a leaching reactor and heating of the leachate can occur in a roaster. The acid-soluble rare earth concentrate can be fed to a hydrometallurgical process to separate and purify the rare earth elements.

An alloy treatment method is provided, in which a solution containing nickel and/or cobalt is obtained from an alloy containing nickel and/or cobalt and also containing copper and zinc, the method comprising: a leaching step for subjecting the alloy to a leaching treatment with an acid under the condition where a sulfating agent is present to produce a leachate; a reduction step for subjecting the leachate to a reduction treatment using a reducing agent to produce a reduced solution; an oxidation/neutralization step for adding an oxidizing agent and a neutralizing agent to the reduced solution to produce a neutralized solution containing nickel and/or cobalt and also containing zinc; and a solvent extraction step for subjecting the neutralized solution to a solvent extraction procedure using an acidic phosphorus compound-based extractant to produce a solution containing nickel and/or cobalt.

Disclosed is a method for processing ash, particularly fly ash, in which method several elements are separated from the ash. In the method both noble metals and rare earth elements are separated.

A method of producing enriched .sup.47Sc comprises irradiating a V structure comprising .sup.51V with at least one incident photon beam having an endpoint energy within a range of from about 14 MeV to about 44 MeV to convert at least some of the .sup.51V to .sup.47Sc and form a .sup.47Sc-containing structure. The .sup.47Sc of the .sup.47Sc-containing structure is separated from additional components of the .sup.47Sc-containing structure using a chromatography process. Systems and apparatuses for producing enriched .sup.47Sc are also described.

The present invention relates to use of an amino-containing neutral phosphine extractant of Formula I in extraction and separation of thorium, and a process of extracting and separating thorium using the amino-containing neutral phosphine extractant of Formula I,

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wherein, R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each independently selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1-C.sub.12 alkyl, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are each independently selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1-16 alkyl and hydrogen, and n is an integer of 1 to 8.