Inventors:
Kenneth Julian Richards - Salt Lake City UT
Don Richard Clark - Centerville UT
Assignee:
Kennecott Copper Corporation - New York NY
International Classification:
C25C 112, C22B 300, C22B 6002, C22B 2304
Abstract:
A cyclic process for selective recovery of a metal from a material which contains other metal values in addition to the selected metal, comprises leaching the material with an aqueous solution capable of leaching metal values including the selected metal from the material. The resulting, aqueous solution, containing the selected metal and other metallic contaminants, is dispersed in an organic medium comprising an exchange reagent which is capable of selectively extracting the selected metal from the aqueous solution while rejecting any other metal values in the aqueous solution. The dispersion, comprising the aqueous solution and the organic medium containing the extracted metal, is passed as a flowing stream through a zone in which there are a plurality of spaced, parallel, elongate electrodes. Flow of the dispersion is such that it is distributed uniformly about the electrodes. An alternating current potential is applied to the electrodes to create an A. C.