Amax Incorporated

Ben W Wiegers

Eddie C Chou

Dale K Huggins

Edward I Wiewiorowski

Helen S Leaver

John D Bruno

Nickel and cobalt contained in aqueous sulfate solution are separately recovered by counter-current solvent extraction using a cobalt-selective organic extractant while scaling of equipment and cobalt recycle are minimized by controlling aqueous pH at the extraction, scrubbing and stripping stages to maximize cobalt loading and selectivity of the extractant while loading scale-causing ions such as calcium and magnesium in the extractant and removing them from the circuit with the aqueous cobalt strip solution.

Solvent extraction of cobalt (II) from sulfate solutions with cobalt

A process is provided for removing hexavalent selenium from an acidic sulfate solution containing at least one metal ion from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and copper at ambient pressure and at a temperature not exceeding the boiling point of the solution. The solution is treated with an agent from the group consisting of a compound which will produce nascent hydrogen in the solution and finely divided metal from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and copper resulting from in situ precipitation of the metal in the acid sulfate solution. Thus, following treatment with the compound, the hexavalent selenium is reduced to a form separable from the solution by solid-liquid separation.

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Wilmer, AL, United States of America

Ben W Wiegers