A method is provided for recycling lithium-ion batteries containing plastics, electrolyte, carbon, metals, and lithium. The method includes: Lithium-ion batteries are ground to form ground battery material which is then pyrolyzed at a temperature between about 100° C. and 700° C. for a time sufficient to vaporize about 80 wt % to 100 wt % of electrolytes present in the ground battery material. The resulting material is further ground and screen classified to produce a screen oversize and a screen undersize. The screen oversize comprises metals and plastics, while the screen undersize comprises a black mass material. Lithium dissolution, triboelectric charging and electrostatic separation of the black mass material (not necessarily in that order) produces a liquid comprising dissolved lithium, a graphite product, and a concentrated metal fines product. Lithium is precipitated from the liquid comprising dissolved lithium, and the concentrated metal fines can be further treated by hydrometallurgy or pyrometallurgy processes.

An electrochemical system and process are provided to convert an amount of chalcopyrite (CuFeS.sub.2) to a product including copper ions. In an electrochemical reactor, a potential is applied across an anode and a cathode to convert the chalcopyrite to an intermediate, chalcocite (Cu.sub.2S). The anode is covered to prevent contact with the intermediate, thus limiting subsequent conversion of the intermediate to covellite (CuS) in favor of conversion to a material more suited to chemical oxidation, cuprite (Cu.sub.2O). For example, the anode can be covered with one or more layers of filter paper. Upon application of an oxidizing agent, the cuprite is oxidized to produce a product including copper ions. The cathode and covered anode allow for efficient and inexpensive processing. The cost of this technique is comparable to industry standards, and moreover, has a much smaller environmental footprint than heat-based copper extraction.

The present disclosure relates to a method for recovery of metal oxides/carbonates from assorted waste Li-ion batteries. The method uses less solvent and has a high extraction efficiency. Further, the method requires comparatively lesser extraction time to extract metals. Furthermore, the method of the present disclosure is cost-effective.

A method for recovering a valuable substance from a lithium ion secondary battery is provided. The method includes a thermal treatment step of thermally treating a lithium ion secondary battery containing aluminum, carbon, and a copper foil as constituting materials, and a wet sorting step of applying an external force to a thermally treated product obtained in the thermal treatment step in the presence of a liquid, to sort the thermally treated product into a heavy product and a light product containing copper.

A binder for use in leaching a heap of a low-permeability ore containing at least one of the following: copper ore, copper/cobalt ore, nickel laterite ore and uranium ore, wherein the binder comprises an acid-proof cement formed by modifying ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with a supplementary cementitious material (SCM).

Disclosed is a method for recovering a waste lithium cobalt oxide battery, the method comprising: feeding a lithium cobalt oxide battery black powder in a column-shaped container, adding a first acid to the column-shaped container for heat leaching until solids in the column-shaped container are not reduced any more so as to obtain a first leachate and leaching residues, wherein the first acid is a weak acid, and a filtering structure is arranged at the bottom of the column-shaped container; and adding a second acid to the column-shaped container containing the leaching residues for heat leaching until solids in the column-shaped container are not reduced any more so as to obtain a second leachate and graphite, wherein the second acid is a strong acid. According to the present invention, consumption of an inorganic strong acid can be reduced, emission of strong acid gas is reduced, and green and low-carbon heat leaching of the black powder is achieved.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a leaching method using a support made of a polypropylene material to form agglomerates with a metal bearing material or mineral concentrates.

Disclosed is a method for recovering a waste lithium cobalt oxide battery, the method comprising: feeding a lithium cobalt oxide battery black powder in a column-shaped container, adding a first acid to the column-shaped container for heat leaching until solids in the column-shaped container are not reduced any more so as to obtain a first leachate and leaching residues, wherein the first acid is a weak acid, and a filtering structure is arranged at the bottom of the column-shaped container; and adding a second acid to the column-shaped container containing the leaching residues for heat leaching until solids in the column-shaped container are not reduced any more so as to obtain a second leachate and graphite, wherein the second acid is a strong acid.

A geothermally powered copper production system includes a geothermal system with a wellbore extending from a surface into an underground magma reservoir. A hopper receives a copper oxide ore that is crushed and provided to a leach heap to produce a copper-rich pregnant leach solution. The pregnant leach solution is provided to a settler that is heated by a heat transfer fluid heated by the geothermal system, and a product of the settler is used to prepare a copper product. A hopper receives a copper sulfide ore that is crushed and provided to a flotation tank. The flotation tank is heated by a heat transfer fluid heated by the geothermal system, and a product of the flotation tank is used to prepare a copper product.

There is provided a method for recovering valuable materials from lithium ion secondary batteries, which includes: a heat-treatment step of performing a heat treatment on a lithium ion secondary battery to obtain a heat-treated product; a first classification step of classifying a crushed product, which is obtained by crushing the heat-treated product, at a classification point of 600 m or greater and 2,400 m or less to obtain a coarse-particle product 1 and a small-particle product; a grinding step of grinding the small-particle product to obtain a ground product; a second classification step of classifying the ground product at one or more classification points that are smaller than the classification point of the first classification step and are 75 m or greater and 1, 200 m or less to obtain a coarse-particle product 2 and a fine-particle product 1; and a magnetic separation step of sorting the fine-particle product 1 obtained in the second classification step using magnetic force.