Compositions and methods are provided that provide recovery of metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, indium, and other metals are recovered from mine tailings, in situ ore bodies, or postconsumer waste. An amine-containing lixiviant is utilized to generate an aqueous solution of the desired metal from insoluble salts present in the source material. Metals can be recovered and further purified by various processes, including extraction into an immiscible organic solvent, electrowinning, crystallization, and chemical reduction. Spent lixiviant can be regenerated and recycled back into the metal recovery process.

A method of extracting metals from polymetallic sulphide ores or concentrates comprising at least Cu, Zn, Pb and Ag, comprising a first step of atmospheric leaching in sulphate medium in the presence of recycled silver for extracting Cu and Zn and a second step of atmospheric leaching in chloride medium for extracting Pb and Ag.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

A process for removal of aluminium and iron in the recycling of rechargeable batteries comprising providing a leachate from black mass, adding phosphoric acid (H.sub.3PO.sub.4) to said leachate and adjusting the pH to form iron phosphate (FePO.sub.4) and aluminium phosphate (AlPO.sub.4), precipitating and removing the formed FePO.sub.4 and AlPO.sub.4, and forming a filtrate for further recovery of cathode metals, mainly NMC-metals and lithium.

Methods for recovering a metal value from a metal-bearing material are provided. The method comprises agglomerating the metal-bearing material with an agglomeration solution comprising a raffinate, an oxidant, and citric acid or salts thereof to form an agglomerated metal-bearing material; leaching the agglomerated metal-bearing material with a leaching solution comprising the raffinate and the citric acid or salts thereof to produce a pregnant leaching solution and a leached material; re-oxidizing the leached material with a curing solution comprising the raffinate and the oxidant; and recovering the metal value from the pregnant leach solution to produce the raffinate.

A process for recovering copper from heap leach residues containing residual copper, includes identifying a production zone within the heap leach residues for secondary leaching, drilling wells into the heap at locations suitable for delivering leach solution into the production zone, injecting the leach solution including ferric ions through the wells and aerating the production zone to facilitate oxidative reactions within the production zone, and collecting effluent from the heap for copper recovery therefrom.

A process for recovery of one or more elements, selected from precious metals and chalcophile metals, as herein defined, from materials containing precious and/or chalcophile metal/s, said process including: (i) contacting the material with an alkaline solution containing a lixiviant comprising an amino acid, or derivative thereof, and an alkali stable transition metal complex in order to form a leachate containing the precious metal and/or chalcophile metal; and (ii) recovering the precious metal and/or chalcophile metal from the leachate.

A process for leaching minerals that contain metal sulphides and one or more precious metals or precious metal compounds, the process comprising the steps of a first leaching step to leach the minerals under oxidative conditions at a pH of less than 4 to form a slurry or pulp, the slurry or pulp comprising a solid phase containing unreacted components, solid reaction products and elemental sulphur, and subjecting the slurry or pulp or solid residue from the first leaching step to a second leaching step comprising oxidative leaching at pH of at least 9.0 to thereby form thiosulphate, whereby the thiosulphate leaches precious metal from the solid residue.

The method may comprise receiving historical data (e.g., mineralogy data, irrigation data, raffinate data, heat data, lift height data, geographic data on ore placement and/or blower data); training a predictive model using the historical data to create a trained predictive model; adding future assumption data to the trained predictive model; running the forecast engine for a plurality of parameters to obtain forecast data for a mining production target; comparing the forecast data for the mining production target to the actual data for the mining production target; determining deviations between the forecast data and the actual data, based on the comparing; and changing each of the plurality of parameters from the forecast data to the actual data to determine a contribution to the deviations for each of the plurality of parameters.

A green chemistry hydrometallurgical process for recovering one or more metals from a metal-containing material includes leaching the metal-containing material with formic acid, obtaining a leachate comprising the one or more metals as one or more metal formates, and precipitating at least one of the one or more metal formates. The metal-containing material may be a lithium-ion battery cathode material, resulting in Li formate remaining in solution and precipitation of salts including one or more of Ni, Co, and Mn formates. Steps may include filtration of the leachate, sulphurization of retained metal formate salts to produce metal sulphate salts, purification of filtered leachate by adding lithium carbonate and filtering, dewatering of the purified leachate, and thermal decomposition of resulting lithium salts to produce battery grade lithium carbonate. Carbon dioxide, water, and formic acid may be recovered and reused, without liquid or solid waste produced.