Patent classifications
C22B3/1683
Processes for recovering metals from aqueous solutions
Provided herein are processes for recovering metal present at low concentration from an acidic aqueous solution, including contacting the acidic aqueous solution with an organic phase solution including one or more 5-(C.sub.8 to C.sub.14 alkyl)-2-hydroxyaryloxime, thereby extracting at least part of the metal from the acidic aqueous phase; increasing or maintaining the concentration of metal in the organic phase solution by recycling a portion of the organic phase solution containing the metal and contacting the organic phase with an acidic aqueous solution containing the metal; contacting the organic phase solution containing metal with an aqueous phase strip solution comprising an inorganic compound that back-extracts the metal, thereby stripping at least part of the metal from the organic phase solution to the aqueous phase strip solution; and separating the metal from the aqueous phase strip solution, thereby recovering the metal.