Amax Incorporated

Dennis E Voelker

Leo W Beckstead

Robert F Hogsett

Foaming in the hydrometallurgical treatment of a tungsten-containing aqueous solution due to the presence of carbonaceous organic material impurities, such as flotation reagents, is substantially inhibited by the addition of effective amounts of powdered activated carbon, the carbon with the adsorbed impurities being thereafter separated from the solution by filtering. The activated carbon also protects the solvent extraction circuit from contamination. The method is particularly applicable to slurries of tungsten oxide concentrates during the high temperature, high pressure leaching thereof with sodium carbonate solutions in an autoclave.

Activated carbon adsorption of flotation reagents from tungsten solutions

A process is provided for recovering molybdenum and tungsten separately from a sulfide cake containing the same along with arsenic as an impurity. The process comprises dissolving essentially all of the tungsten and molybdenum values contained in the cake in a caustic solution containing at least about 5 but not more than about 6 moles of sodium hydroxide per mole of tungsten plus molybdenum contained in the cake, separating insoluble material from the resulting leach solution and then precipitating one metal value from the group consisting of molybdenum and tungsten preferentially from the other.

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Ft. Madison, IA, United States of America

Dennis E Voelker