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.

The disclosure relates to a method for opening up electrochemical energy storage devices in connection with a subsequent recovery of valuable materials contained therein as secondary raw materials, in which method the energy storage devices are opened up by means of a thermal treatment system to remove the electrolytes and reactive substances, before the thermally treated material is subjected to processing, whereby secondary raw materials in the thermally treated material are separated from one another. The thermal treatment is performed in an indirectly heated furnace 2 under atmospheric pressure conditions or a slight overpressure relative to the ambient pressure of up to 20 mbar in a reducing atmosphere, and influence is exerted on the course of the thermal treatment process via the reducing atmosphere, as a control variable. Furthermore, a thermal treatment system is described for removing electrolytes and reactive substances in electrochemical energy storage devices and consequently for pyrolytic opening.

A method for breaking down electrochemical energy storage devices in conjunction with a subsequent reclamation of recyclable materials contained therein as secondary raw materials. The devices are broken down by a thermal treatment in a negative pressure environment in a process chamber to remove electrolyte and reactive substances, before the thermally treated material is subjected to downstream processing, by which the secondary raw materials are separated from one another. After introducing a batch of storage devices, in a first process step, the process chamber is evacuated with simultaneous heating of the devices to a first temperature level such that electrolytes in the devices evaporate and, due to the resulting vapor pressure, the devices are opened, wherein produced process gases containing electrolytes in the vapor phase are withdrawn from the process chamber. The devices are then heated to a second temperature level for further breakdown with a simultaneous pressure increase in the process chamber in a reducing atmosphere, before the chamber is ventilated and cooled and the broken down devices are removed, wherein the pressure increase is monitored during this second process step so that it increases continuously. Also, a thermal treatment system for removing electrolytes and reactive substances in electrochemical energy storage devices, thus for pyrolytically breaking them down.

A method for extracting metal values from a low grade primary metal oxide ore feedstock is provided. The method includes providing a low grade primary metal oxide ore containing a primary metal and scandium; subjecting the ore to acid leaching, thus yielding an acidic leachate; extracting the primary metal and scandium from the leachate, thereby yielding an acidic barren leachate; and using the acidic barren leachate in a subsequent iteration of the acid leaching step.

The present invention relates to an improved process and method of recovering metals of value from used Lithium Ion batteries. More particularly, the invention provides a method for recovering cobalt and lithium along with other metals of value wherein the method includes physical processes for separation, limiting the use of chemical for removing minor impurities. Majority of elements were separated by physical processes instead of chemical processes which gives the benefit of cost saving in chemical treatment of liquid and solid effluents. The invention provides for a cost effective, economic and environmental friendly process for recovering metals of value.

Process for the recovery of transition metal from spent lithium ion batteries containing nickel, wherein said process comprises the steps of (a) heating a lithium containing transition metal oxide material to a temperature in the range of from 400 to 1200° C., (b) treating said heat-treated material with water, (c) treating the solid residue from step (b)with an acid selected from sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, methanesulfonic acid, oxalic acid and citric acid, (d) adjusting the pH value to 2.5 to 8, (e) removing compounds of Al, Cu, Fe, Zn or combinations of at least two of the foregoing from the solution or slurry obtained in step (d).

The present invention relates to a method for recovering a positive electrode active material from a lithium secondary battery including: 1) separating a positive electrode into a collector and a positive electrode part; 2) removing an organic substance by firing the separated positive electrode part; 3) washing the fired resultant and removing remaining fluorine (F); 4) adding a lithium-containing material into the washed resultant and firing to recover a lithium transition metal oxide.

Provided is a method for processing electronic and electrical device component scrap, which can accurately and efficiently sort electronic and electrical device component scrap. The method for processing electronic and electrical device component scrap includes a separation step of separating non-metal objects 1b or metal objects 1a.sub.1, 1a.sub.2 from electronic and electrical device component scrap 1 containing the metal objects 1a.sub.1, 1a.sub.2 and the non-metal objects 1b using a sorter 10 comprising a metal sensor 2, a color camera 3, an air valve 4, and a conveyor 5, wherein a fixed distance is provided between the metal objects 1a.sub.1, 1a.sub.2 adjacent to each other so as to prevent the non-metal objects 1b between the metal objects 1a.sub.1, 1a.sub.2 from being erroneously detected, when detecting the metal objects 1a.sub.1, 1a.sub.2 in the electronic and electrical device component scrap 1 by the metal sensor 2.

A method of producing titanium cobbles includes: a preparation step of preparing a scrap material containing 50% by mass or more of metal titanium; a first crushing step of roughly crushing the scrap material using a first crusher; a second crushing step of crushing the scrap material, which has been roughly crushed in the first crushing step, using a second crusher; a dust collection step of collecting fine dust of the scrap material generated in the second crushing step; and a first classification step of classifying products obtained by crushing the scrap material, which have been generated in the second crushing step, into medium particles with particle sizes within a predetermined particle size range, large particles with particle sizes larger than the particle size range, and small particles with particle sizes smaller than the particle size range.

A system and method for processing leaded glass are presented, in which glass input is tumbled within the cylinder of a ball mill while it is being exposed to an electrolytic fluid. As the glass input is tumbled, balls within the ball mill pulverize the glass input into pulverized glass input particulate matter thereby exposing lead or other heavy metals contained within the glass input to a surface of the pulverized glass input particulate matter. The exposed lead or other heavy metals are largely dissolved by the electrolytic fluid leaving a mostly lead or heavy metal free pulverized glass input particulate matter. A reagent is applied to the pulverized glass input particulate matter to neutralize any residual lead or heavy metal within the pulverized glass input particulate matter thereby allowing the processed pulverized glass input particulate matter to pass a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) environmental test.