Methods for recovery of at least one rare earth metal from ferromagnetic alloy are described, and further methods of atomic hydrogen decrepitation of a ferromagnetic alloy.

A product comprising recycled metal fragments and an alloying supplement, and methods and system for producing same. In some examples, the product comprises a container, shot blasted pieces of aluminum alloy wheels and an alloying supplement. In some examples, the product also comprises an indication on the container of a composition estimate of the combined shot blasted pieces and alloying supplement. In other examples, the indication and/or the alloying supplement may be provided by a company in the business of providing alloying supplements.

Lead is recovered from lead paste of a lead acid battery in a continuous and electrochemical lead recovery process. In especially preferred aspects, lead paste is processed to remove residual sulfates, and the so treated lead paste is subjected to a thermal treatment step that removes residual moisture and reduces lead dioxide to lead oxide. Advantageously, such pretreatment will avoid lead dioxide accumulation and electrolyte dilution.

Disclosed is an apparatus that is an attrition mill for grinding or comminuting ores, mine wastes, and radioactive wastes some of which may comprise metals, which may include uranium and/or cesium and/or mercury and/or thorium and/or rare earth elements. Also disclosed are processes that employ the apparatus for combined grinding and optionally leaching metals from ores and wastes. Some such methods comprise an optional step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with a solid inorganic base with water addition or with an aqueous inorganic base, follow by a step of grinding and mixing the ore or waste with an aqueous inorganic acid with or without leaching salt addition, to solubilize the metals present in the ore or the waste. The disclosed apparatus and methods, in some embodiments, enable efficient grinding and attrition of ores substrates and mine wastes even without need for grinding media.

A method of processing a pyrite-containing slurry is disclosed. The method includes removing pyrite from the pyrite-containing slurry and forming (i) an inert stream and (ii) a pyrite-containing material, with the pyrite-containing slurry including tailings from a tailings dam or an ore processing plant. The method also includes leaching a metal sulfide-containing material and the pyrite-containing material with a leach liquor and microbes. A method of leaching a metal sulfide-containing material is also disclosed. A flotation circuit for an ore processing plant for a metal sulfide-containing material is also disclosed.

The invention relates to a method of separating and extracting rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste and regenerating rare-earth polishing powder, which is characterized by: firstly, process the waste powder with first acid leaching, alkali roasting, and second acid leaching to separate and extract rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste to obtain the leaching solution of rare-earth chloride; secondly, precipitate from the leaching solution with ammonia to remove impurities and hydrochloric acid solution to obtain the purified solution of rare-earth chloride; thirdly, co-precipitate from the solution acquired in the second step with hydrofluoric acid, ammonium bicarbonate, and dispersant to obtain the lanthanum cerium fluoro-carbonate; and finally, after drying, two-stage high-temperature calcination, and ball milling, the regenerated rare-earth polishing powder with decent polishing performance can be obtained. The total leaching efficiency of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste of the present invention reaches more than 95%, and the total recovery efficiency of rare-earths reaches more than 93%, which realizes the efficient separation, extraction, and regeneration of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste.

Provided is steel for a wind power gear with improved purity and reliability. The chemical components thereof comprise, in percentages by mass: 0.15-0.19% of C, ≤0.4% of Si, 0.5-0.7% of Mn, ≤0.012% of P, ≤0.006% of S, 1.5-1.8% of Cr, 0.28-0.35% of Mo, 1.4-1.7% of Ni, and 0.02-0.04% of Al, with the balance being Fe and inevitable impurities. A smelting method therefor comprises adding raw materials to a converter for primary melting, transferring same to a refining furnace for refining, carrying out continuous casting after vacuum degassing, and transferring same to a gas protection furnace for electroslag remelting. According to the present invention, a pure electroslag master batch is obtained by continuous casting, and the purity of the material is further improved by means of an electroslag remelting procedure; and the prepared steel material is used in a wind power gear, such that the flaw detection pass rate is significantly increased, large-particle inclusions in the steel material are significantly reduced, and the inclusions are fine and dispersed.

The invention relates to a method of separating and extracting rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste and regenerating rare-earth polishing powder, which is characterized by: firstly, process the waste powder with first acid leaching, alkali roasting, and second acid leaching to separate and extract rare-earths from rare-earth polishing powder waste to obtain the leaching solution of rare-earth chloride; secondly, precipitate from the leaching solution with ammonia to remove impurities and hydrochloric acid solution to obtain the purified solution of rare-earth chloride; thirdly, co-precipitate from the solution acquired in the second step with hydrofluoric acid, ammonium bicarbonate, and dispersant to obtain the lanthanum cerium fluoro-carbonate; and finally, after drying, two-stage high-temperature calcination, and ball milling, the regenerated rare-earth polishing powder with decent polishing performance can be obtained. The total leaching efficiency of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste of the present invention reaches more than 95%, and the total recovery efficiency of rare-earths reaches more than 93%, which realizes the efficient separation, extraction, and regeneration of rare-earths in the rare-earth polishing powder waste.

Some variations provide a composition for reducing a metal ore, the composition comprising a carbon-metal ore particulate, wherein the carbon-metal ore particulate comprises at least about 0.1 wt % to at most about 50 wt % fixed carbon on a moisture-free and ash-free basis, and wherein the carbon is at least 50% renewable carbon as determined from a measurement of the .sup.14C/.sup.12C isotopic ratio. Some variations provide a process for reducing a metal ore, comprising: providing a biomass feedstock; pyrolyzing the feedstock to generate a biogenic reagent comprising carbon and a pyrolysis off-gas comprising hydrogen or carbon monoxide; obtaining a metal ore comprising a metal oxide; combining the carbon with the metal ore, to generate a carbon-metal ore particulate; optionally pelletizing the carbon-metal ore particulate; and utilizing the pyrolysis off-gas to chemically reduce the metal oxide to elemental metal, such as iron. The disclosed technologies are environmentally superior to conventional processes based on coal.

The present invention relates to a process for the recovery of transition metals from battery materials comprising (0.1) providing a battery material which comprises oxidic nickel and/or cobalt compounds, (1.1) heating the battery material above 350° C. to yield a reduced material which contains nickel and/or cobalt in elemental form, (2.1) carbonylating the reduced material with carbon monoxide optionally in the presence of a reactive gas to yield a solid carbonylation residue and a volatile carbonyl which comprises nickel and/or cobalt carbonyl containing compounds, and (3.1) separating the volatile carbonyl from the solid carbonylation residue by evaporation.