A method and plant for gold recovery from any gold-bearing ore by low-temperature chlorination, wherein the finely-divided gold-bearing feedstock is chlorinated gaseous chlorine at a temperature of about 245 C. to form a highly volatile chloride compound, which after leaving a reactor is directed to a low-temperature nitrogen plasma unit having a temperature of 900-1100 C., wherein the said compound decomposes and turns into high-purity gold powder, which is cooled with gaseous nitrogen at a cooling reactor's inlet, which is equipped with a water chamber, and collected in a dumping hopper. Some embodiments allow recovery of high-purity 999.9 fine gold using an environmentally friendly, cost effective and inexpensive method implemented on an industrial scale.

Methods of preparing Zr based metallic using Zr sponge refined by a refining process are described. An exemplary method includes heating Zr sponge in a processing chamber with an electron-beam-heating apparatus or an arc-melting apparatus under a desired pressure condition to release volatile contaminants from the Zr sponge, introducing a purge gas into the processing chamber and permitting the purge gas to intermingle with at least some of the released volatile contaminants, evacuating the processing chamber to extract at least some of the purge gas and released volatile contaminants, repeating the heating of the Zr sponge, the introducing of the purge gas, and the evacuating of the processing chamber release and evacuate additional volatile contaminants from the Zr sponge to provide a processed Zr sponge with enhanced purity, and melting the processed Zr sponge with multiple other alloy constituents to provide a Zr-based metallic alloy.

The invention relates to a process for treating, with a plasma, a composition comprising at least a first compound and a second compound, characterized in that said process comprises at least: generating, within an enclosure, a non-equilibrium plasma flow from a gas present in said enclosure, and treating the composition contained in said enclosure with said non-equilibrium plasma flow so as to extract at least a portion of said first compound.

The present disclosure concerns an apparatus suitable for smelting and separating metals in flexible oxido-reduction conditions. More particularly, it concerns an apparatus for smelting metallurgical charges comprising a bath furnace susceptible to contain a molten charge up to a determined level, characterized in that the furnace is equipped with: at least one non-transfer plasma torch for the generation of first hot gases; at least one oxygas burner for the generation of second hot gasses; and, submerged injectors for injecting said first and second hot gases below said determined level.

The invention concerns a process for the separation of cobalt from lithium present in a charge comprising lithium-ion batteries or related products, comprising the steps of: smelting the charge using a bath furnace equipped with a submerged air-fed plasma torch for injecting plasma gas into the melt; defining and maintaining a bath redox potential where cobalt is reduced to the metallic state and reporting to an alloy phase, and whereby lithium is oxidized as Li.sub.2O and reporting to the slag phase; decanting and separating the phases. It is characterized in that the reduction and oxidizing steps are performed simultaneously. A suitably low cobalt concentration is obtained in the slag.

Acquisition of critical minerals via refinement from aqueous sources. Technological and geopolitical advantagesinure to conflict-free refinement of rare materials including critical minerals used in production of energy storage devices, among other applications. Additionally, the applied clean tech methods advance environmental goals such as those given in the Paris Agreement. Various site-specific system configurations and corresponding site-specific methods of operation bring to bear a panoply of economically viable approaches to critical mineral refinement. In some approaches, electrical power needed to drive refinement is provided by selected site-specific renewable energy sources. Real-world implementations involve co-locating a dissociative reactor with a geothermal energy plant near a salar or other source (preferably aqueous) of critical minerals therein. Refined critical minerals are produced on site. Deployment of the various site-specific configurations of systems and practice of corresponding site-specific methods reduces or eliminates negative environmental impacts such as those incurred by legacy mining-based techniques.

The invention relates to a process for selectively and continuously extracting a series of desired species from a matrix, comprising the steps of:injecting a plasma (310) in an extraction chamber by means of a plasma torch,continuously monitoring (320) the excited elements extracted from the matrix and contained in the plasma by optical emission spectroscopy, and for each species of the series,setting a distance (330) between the support and the plasma torch, and the composition of the injected plasma as a function of the monitored excited elements so that only one desired species of the series of species is being extracted from the matrix under molecular form, andproviding (400) a plate in the extraction chamber, exterior to the plasma, causing collection of molecules comprising said desired species by deposition onto the surface of the plate.

This invention relates generally to novel methods and novel devices for the continuous manufacture of nanoparticles, microparticles and nanoparticle/liquid solution(s). The nanoparticles (and/or micron-sized particles) comprise a variety of possible compositions, sizes and shapes. The particles (e.g., nanoparticles) are caused to be present (e.g., created) in a liquid (e.g., water) by, for example, preferably utilizing at least one adjustable plasma (e.g., created by at least one AC and/or DC power source), which plasma communicates with at least a portion of a surface of the liquid. At least one subsequent and/or substantially simultaneous adjustable electrochemical processing technique is also preferred. Multiple adjustable plasmas and/or adjustable electrochemical processing techniques are preferred. The continuous process causes at least one liquid to flow into, through and out of at least one trough member, such liquid being processed, conditioned and/or effected in said trough member(s). Results include constituents formed in the liquid including micron-sized particles and/or nanoparticles (e.g., metallic-based nanoparticles) of novel size, shape, composition and properties present in a liquid.

Acquisition of critical minerals via refinement from aqueous sources. Technological and geopolitical advantages inure to conflict-free refinement of rare materials including critical minerals used in production of energy storage devices, among other applications. Additionally, the applied clean tech methods advance environmental goals such as those given in the Paris Agreement. Various site-specific system configurations and corresponding site-specific methods of operation bring to bear a panoply of economically viable approaches to critical mineral refinement. In some approaches, electrical power needed to drive refinement is provided by selected site-specific renewable energy sources. Real-world implementations involve co-locating a dissociative reactor with a geothermal energy plant near a salar or other source (preferably aqueous) of critical minerals therein. Refined critical minerals are produced on site. Deployment of the various site-specific configurations of systems and practice of corresponding site-specific methods reduces or eliminates negative environmental impacts such as those incurred by legacy mining-based techniques.

Methods of preparing Zr based metallic using Zr sponge refined by a refining process are described. An exemplary method includes heating Zr sponge in a processing chamber with an electron-beam-heating apparatus or an arc-melting apparatus under a desired pressure condition to release volatile contaminants from the Zr sponge, introducing a purge gas into the processing chamber and permitting the purge gas to intermingle with at least some of the released volatile contaminants, evacuating the processing chamber to extract at least some of the purge gas and released volatile contaminants, repeating the heating of the Zr sponge, the introducing of the purge gas, and the evacuating of the processing chamber release and evacuate additional volatile contaminants from the Zr sponge to provide a processed Zr sponge with enhanced purity, and melting the processed Zr sponge with multiple other alloy constituents to provide a Zr-based metallic alloy.