A method of maximising the amount of water available for rinsing in a high-chloride heap leach operation which includes the step of using process make-up water in the range of 0.05 to 0.35 m3/ton of ore to rinse leach residue ore, in the heap, thereby to displace a chloride-containing aqueous liquor from the leached ore.

Provided herein is a system for producing suspensions comprising soluble metal ions. The system comprises a basket to hold a metal load comprising a permeable floor so as to allow a solution to come into contact with the metal load. The system further comprises a vessel within which the solution and the basket may be maintained while metal ions are leached from the metal load into the solution. Some embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to a system used to produce a suspension comprising copper ions. Additionally, provided herein are methods of using the system to produce suspensions comprising soluble metal ions. Some embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of making suspensions comprising copper ions. The resultant suspensions comprising metal ions may be further modified to supply a pharmaceutically acceptable treatment.

A method of leaching copper-containing ores, such as chalcopyrite ores, with a leach liquor in the presence of silver and an activation agent that activates silver whereby the silver enhances copper extraction from copper ores.

The present disclosure discloses a method for extracting lithium from waste lithium batteries, which comprises: leaching positive electrode powder of the waste lithium battery in hydrochloric acid, and obtaining leaching solution by filtering; removing copper and iron from the leaching solution, and then introducing hydrogen sulfide gas for reaction, and performing solid-liquid separation to obtain first filter residue and first filtrate; adding potassium permanganate to the first filtrate, and performing solid-liquid separation to obtain second filter residue and second filtrate; performing spray pyrolysis on the second filtrate to obtain solid particles and tail gas, washing the solid particles with water to obtain a lotion, washing and collecting the tail gas and then mixing the tail gas with the lotion to obtain lithium salt solution. In the present disclosure, the positive electrode powder is leached with hydrochloric acid to obtain the hydrochloric acid leaching solution, and hydrogen sulfide is used to precipitate nickel and cobalt after removing the copper and iron impurities in the leaching solution in turn, and potassium permanganate is added to precipitate manganese ions to generate manganese dioxide. Spray pyrolysis converts the aluminum and magnesium in the solution into oxides and lithium salt is separated. The entire reaction process does not require organic solvent extraction and reduces the loss of lithium.

Providing a method of recovering Cu from copper ore containing Hg. A method for recovering Cu from copper ore, the method comprising: (A) providing copper ore containing Hg with an amount of 0.2 ppm or more; (B) treating the copper ore to leach Cu and Hg with use of solution containing iodide ions and Fe (3+); and (C) treating post-leaching solution with activated carbon to absorb the iodide ions and Hg.

A method of leaching copper-containing ores, such as chalcopyrite ores, with a leach liquor in the presence of silver and an activation agent that activates silver whereby the silver enhances copper extraction from copper ores.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for recovering metals from metalliferous starting materials comprising steps of i) leaching the metalliferous starting material in chloride-based leaching liquor, ii) withdrawing from the leaching step i) aqueous chloride solution with dissolved metals, iii) recovering metal value from the aqueous chloride solution in a metal recovery process step, iv) neutralizing hydrogen chloride content of the aqueous chloride solution in the metal recovery process step with adding hydrolyzed ammonia to the process solution so as to form ammonium chloride, v) withdrawing ammonium chloride containing process solution to an ammonium regeneration step where calcium-containing reagent is added to generate calcium chloride and ammonia gas and recycling ammonia back to the metal recovery process step iii), vi) regenerating the CaCl.sub.2-solution with H.sub.2SO.sub.4 so as to provide a aqueous HCl solution for recycling to the leaching step i).

The present disclosure discloses a method for extracting lithium from waste lithium batteries, which comprises: leaching positive electrode powder of the waste lithium battery in hydrochloric acid, and obtaining leaching solution by filtering; removing copper and iron from the leaching solution, and then introducing hydrogen sulfide gas for reaction, and performing solid-liquid separation to obtain first filter residue and first filtrate; adding potassium permanganate to the first filtrate, and performing solid-liquid separation to obtain second filter residue and second filtrate; performing spray pyrolysis on the second filtrate to obtain solid particles and tail gas, washing the solid particles with water to obtain a lotion, washing and collecting the tail gas and then mixing the tail gas with the lotion to obtain lithium salt solution. In the present disclosure, the positive electrode powder is leached with hydrochloric acid to obtain the hydrochloric acid leaching solution, and hydrogen sulfide is used to precipitate nickel and cobalt after removing the copper and iron impurities in the leaching solution in turn, and potassium permanganate is added to precipitate manganese ions to generate manganese dioxide. Spray pyrolysis converts the aluminum and magnesium in the solution into oxides and lithium salt is separated. The entire reaction process does not require organic solvent extraction and reduces the loss of lithium.

A method of recovering gold from a metal combination includes contacting the metal combination with a first leaching liquid sufficient to oxidize one or more additional metals of the metal combination to produce an oxidized product liquid and a recovered gold product, wherein the first leaching liquid includes chloride ions.

The invention describes a process for the separation of Fe from Cu and one or more of Ni and Co contained in an alloyed powder having more than 1% by weight of Cu, comprising the steps of: contacting, in oxidizing conditions, the alloyed powder with a stoichiometric amount of an acidic solution selected between a minimum suitable for dissolving 50% of all metallic elements except Fe, and a maximum suitable for dissolving 100% of all metallic elements except 50% of the Fe, thereby obtaining a leach solution containing a major part of the Cu and of the one or more of Ni and Co, and a residue containing a major part of the Fe; and, separating the leach solution from the residue. Cu, Ni and/or Co from an alloyed powder are dissolved, while the major part of Fe is rejected to a solid residue and separated by solid/liquid separation.