Rhone-Poulenc Chimie

Yves Mottot

Francinet Cailly

Jean-Yves Chane-Ching

William Fogel

Heavy metal cation recovering agent including a silicate or

The invention relates to a process of treatment for the recovery of the precious metals, such as platinum, rhodium and palladium, contained in various compositions including a layer of oxide(s) which is deposited on a metal support, in particular worn or spent motor vehicle postcombustion catalysts, in which the layer of oxide(s) containing the precious metals is separated from the metal support by an electrochemical route, the composition to be treated forming one of the electrodes employed or being in direct contact with one of the electrodes employed.

Process for the treatment, by an electrochemical route, of compositions

Rare earth values are recovered from gypsum starting material by (i) dissolving such gypsum in water and separating therefrom the water-insoluble fractions which contain the rare earth elements (ii) treating such insoluble fractions with a solution of carbonate ions, (iii) next digesting the insoluble fractions thus treated with a mineral acid and converting at least the rear earth values into water-soluble salts thereof, and (iv) recovering such rear earth values from the medium of digestion.

Recovery of rare earth values from gypsum

Rare earth values are nonpollutingly recovered from a rare earth mineral/ore, especially one containing but minor amounts of the rare earths, by (a) leaching/decomposing such rare earth mineral/ore with a solution of nitric acid to solubilize the rare earth values contained therein, (b) optionally separating insoluble residue from the resulting leach solution, (c) separating the rare earth values from the leach solution, (d) treating the leach solution thus stripped of rare earth values with a hydroxide of a metallic cation M to precipitate solubilized impurities and separating the thus precipitated impurities therefrom, (e) treating the resulting purified solution with sulfuric acid to precipitate metal sulphates and separating the thus precipitated sulfates therefrom to regenerate the above nitric acid solution, and (f) optionally recycling such regenerated solution of nitric acid to the leaching/decomposition step (a).

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Tremblay en France, France

Yves Mottot