Synergistic extraction of rare earths by mixture of HDEHP and HEH/EHP in sulfuric acid medium

The extraction of RE（Ⅲ） （RE=La, Nd, Sm, Gd） in sulfuric acid medium using the mixture of HDEHP（H2B2） and HEH/EHP（H2L2） was investigated. The synergistic enhancement coefficient（R） was calculated for La （1.96）, Nd（3.52）, Sm（5.96）, and Gd（5.71）, respectively, at pH=2.0, and it was seen that the R increased with the increase of aqueous quilibrium pH. The configuration of the extracted complexes was considered to be RE（SOa）xH2x（HB2）3 with HDEHP, RE（SOa）xH2x（HL2）3 with HEH/EHP, and RE（HB2）2（HL2） with their mixture as the extractant with the slope method. The equilibrium constants and stability constants were calculated. A cation exchange mechanism was proposed as well.

Nickel extraction from low grade laterite by agitation leaching at atmospheric pressure

This research work deals with the extraction of nickel from a low grade nickel laterite ore, taken from a deposit located in southwestern of Iran, through agitation leaching at atmospheric pressure. The assaying and mineralogical studies carried out on the nickel laterite sample, showed the 0.88% Ni, and principally consisted of oxide and silicate crystalline phases i.e. dolomite, quartz, magnetite, and goethite. Among numerous factors affecting such process, four major parameters i.e. temperature, agitator speed(r/min), leaching agents and their concentration were considered in a two-level full factorial experimental design. The agitation leach tests showed that the ore could be leached at atmospheric pressure with sulfuric acid while citric acid was almost unpromising. Analysis of variance(ANOVA) using DX7 software was employed to identify effective parameters. Sulfuric acid concentration and temperature were the most effective parameters on Ni extraction. Furthermore, the factorial models for experiment responses were developed. The results showed 83% Ni extraction after 4 h leaching, under optimized conditions i.e.temperature at 95 ℃, acid concentration at 5 N and agitator speed at 1000 r/min. This study revealed that factorial experimental design can be implemented to identify effective parameters on the agitation leaching process of nickel laterite.