This theme is focused on the design of original methods for the extraction of certain metals present in polymetallic and poor complex matrices from either mining or recycling. A trivial adaptation of existing and/or industrial systems is not possible either because of the presence of new impurities or the variation of the nature of the processed ores during operation. Therefore, it appears mandatory to design new extraction and purification processes to treat these streams.
This approach is based on the formulation of existing systems, or a combination of them, to obtain simple processes, environmentally friendly, energy efficient, and effective in time. The WG 3 also plays a vital role for these goals. The development of such processes requires a good knowledge of older processes whereas only few data are available in literature. In addition, the synergy phenomena (or antagonism) sometimes observed should be considered and studied in detail.
These processes must fit the following specifications:
- Competitive production cost
- High extraction capacity and high selectivity
- Robustness towards degradation
- low health and environment impacts
Finally, these studies consider the overall processes : all steps (extraction, washing, stripping, cleaning...) are important and contribute to the process efifciency. Besides the conventional stripping stages that use aqueous exhibiting high affinity for the targeted metals, other technologies such as selective precipitation or electrowining must be included in these studies since they allow an efficient metal recovery without generating secondary effluent.
