Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Limited

Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd.

Kunihiko Yamaguchi

Yukinori Minagawa

Tsugio Kaneko

Minoru Tanaka

Toshihiko Yoshitomi

Gouichi Muramatsu

Fumikazu Yajima

Kazumasa Arai

A method for recovering gallium, which comprises a capturing step of contacting an aqueous solution containing gallium to a chelating agent containing a water-insoluble substituted quinolinol as the active ingredient, to let the chelating agent capture gallium, and an eluting step of contacting an eluting solution composed of an aqueous solution of an acid or strong base containing said substituted quinolinol, to the chelating agent from the capturing step, to elute gallium therefrom.

Method for recovering gallium

Yttrium ions are selectively separated by extracting the yttrium ions by contacting an aqueous solution containing hydroxyethyl ethylenediaminetriacetic acid, yttrium ions and lanthanide ions with an extracting solvent containing tributyl phosphate and an acid phosphoric ester having the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 represents hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having the formula ##STR2## wherein n is an integer of 6 to 15 and m is n-1 or n-2; and R.sup.2 represents an alkyl group having the formula ##STR3## wherein n is an integer of 6 to 15 and m is n-1 or n-2.

Method of separating yttrium ions

Yttrium ions are selectively extracted by contacting an acid phosphoric ester with an aqueous solution containing diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid and yttrium ions and one or more heavy rare earth (atomic number of 64 to 71) ions.

Selective extraction of yttrium ions

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Yokohama, Japan

Kunihiko Yamaguchi