The present invention relates to an autocatalytic reductive chemical procedure with solid-solid interaction in conditions of supersaturation of salts, via the phenomenon of efflorescence in order to dissolve a copper metal, from a metallogenically primary ore or chalcopyrite concentrate that contains same. The method comprises two steps, referred to as Reductive Activation Step and Dry Autocatalytic Reductive Transformation Step or efflorescence, which can be repeated as many times as necessary to maximise the extraction of copper or base metal of interest. The invention can also be used for sulphurised base metals such as nickel, zinc, cobalt, lead and molybdenum, among others, regardless of the common impurities of sulphurised ores, as occurs with the presence of arsenic.

This invention describes a hydrometallurgical process for the recovery and separation of valuable elements, in particular gold and silver, from a feed material comprising a refractory, intractable or otherwise poorly responding to conventional treatment routes ores, concentrates and other materials. In particular, the process is a process integrated into one or more existing value element extraction processes.

A method of recovering electrode materials includes: a preparing step of preparing an electrode assembly or an electrode sheet, the electrode assembly and the electrode sheet including a current collector and an electrode active material layer formed on the current collector and containing an electrode active material; a dissolving step of immersing the electrode assembly or the electrode sheet in an etchant solution that dissolves the current collector; and a separating step of separating a precipitate containing the electrode active material from the etchant solution in which the current collector is dissolved.

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 invention relates to a solid-liquid-solid hydrometallurgical method in the presence of hydrated and/or non-hydrated salts in an oversaturation conditions, which is achieved by the intentional and repetitive application of drying and wetting steps, enhancing the chemical and physical phenomena on the mineral or concentrate, thus provoking the crystallization, recrystallization, and release of copper in a non-stoichiometric decomposition of the sulfide and its subsequent precipitation with chloride. The invention is made up of 3 steps called: (a) Wetting, (b) Drying and Oversaturation, (c) Washing and re-wetting, and these are conducted at temperatures ranging from 20-40 C. regardless of the redox potential with a minimum consumption of water and acid without requiring the addition of oxygen. The method allows diminishing the water and acid consumption, since the transformation of the sulfide can be carried out only in the presence of hydrated salts and/or the minimal addition of acid and water.

This invention describes a hydrometallurgical process for extracting and recovering valuable metals contained within metalliferous minerals including ores, concentrates and other materials and generation of useful by-products including sulfur, calcium, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen, wherein the process comprises the use of a hydrogen generator, such as an water electrolyser, hydrocarbon pyrolyser or reformer to produce hydrogen, and optionally carbon and oxygen integrated into a single circuit that converts the CO.sub.2 and SO.sub.2 pollutants that would be emitted by the conventional pyrometallurgical process into the useful by-products.

Disclosed is a system for recovering metal from metal-containing waste liquid. The system includes a waste liquid storage unit, an extraction unit, and an electrolysis unit. The waste liquid storage unit is configured to store a metal-containing waste liquid. The extraction unit is in fluid connection with the waste liquid storage unit and includes an extraction device and a back-extraction device. The extraction device is configured to collect a target metal ion present in the metal-containing waste liquid, and the back-extraction device is configured to back-extract the target metal ion into a back-extracting liquid to form a metal compound. The electrolysis unit is in fluid connection with the waste liquid storage unit and the extraction unit, configured to reduce the target metal ion to a solid metal, or to dissociate the metal compound and deposit a solid metal.

The effect of seawater on the solid-liquid equilibrium in acid medium of CuSO.sub.4 (pH=2) was studied at different temperatures (25 to 50 C.). Physicochemical properties (densities, refraction index, viscosities and conductivities) were measured in saturation and unsaturation conditions. This system was compared with CuSO.sub.4+water system. Solubilities and properties were measured of both systems (seawater and pure water) and the final results were similar with an average difference between CuSO.sub.4 in seawater and CuSO.sub.4 in pure water of 1.42% for solubility, 1% for density, 0.29% for refractive index and 5.61% for viscosity. However conductivities values showed most interesting results due that seawater present major salinity than pure water, with an average differences of 24.61%. The effect of seawater in the leaching of ore (chalcopyrite, 2.55% CuT) using different acids (H.sub.2SO.sub.4, HCl, HNO.sub.3), different oxidants (Fe.sup.3+, Cu.sup.2+, NO.sub.3.sup.) and chloride medium (NaCl) was also studied. Parallel tests of stirring leaching were performed using seawater and pure water as solvents, at 45 C. and size particle under 210 m. The system H.sub.2SO.sub.4 (1 M)+NaNO.sub.3 (1 M)+seawater showed the better results of copper extraction of 78.8% in 3 days of leaching. The systems with nitrate as oxidant in acid medium presented better results than the other system (without nitrate) due to high oxidation potential value of nitrate in comparison with other oxidants used in this work. Moreover when the system had high H+concentration in the presence of nitrate, the oxidation potential was higher with respect to the system without nitrate, the best results in the copper extraction was obtained in the system HCl (pH=0.5)+seawater with a 37.4% in 7 days of leaching. In general, comparing both system (seawater and pure water), the seawater as a solvent had better extraction of copper except when NaCl was added to the seawater where it was observed a slow kinetics and low copper extraction, due to the saturation of ions in the solution, obstructing an easy diffusion of leaching reagent to ore.

A hydro-metallurgical method 80 for the removal of uranium, thorium, radium, lead, bismuth and polonium and/or other radionuclides from a radioactive copper concentrate to produce an upgraded copper concentrate having lowered emission levels. The method comprises the step of: subjecting the copper concentrate to an acidic leaching process (NONOX leach) 120 using a sulfate and chloride containing lixiviant under electrochemically controlled conditions, to allow at least partial removal of one or more of the radionuclides to produce the lowered emission upgraded copper concentrate, wherein the leaching process is conducted at elevated temperature and under pressure to suppress boiling in the leaching process.

The invention relates to a process for leaching metals from metal sulfide ore and/or concentrate, comprising: electrolytically generating a leach solution of oxidative halogen-based lixiviant; contacting the metal sulfide ore and/or concentrate with the leach solution of oxidative halogen-based lixiviant to produce a metal-bearing solution; and passing the metal-bearing solution to metal separation.