Metals Recovery
Multotec’s metals recovery solutions for industrial water treatment use the Australian-based Clean TeQ’s Clean-iX® process to achieve higher resource recovery at lower cost. Used in the industry for over 50 years, it is built on the foundations of continuous counter-current ion exchange and is particularly suitable for metals recovery when working with base metals, gold, uranium, rare earth elements, scandium and other metals.
Multotec supplies modular, mobile and skid-mounted/free-standing Clean-iX® products.
Metal extraction is achieved through the use of an organic solvent, ion exchange resin or adsorbent such as activated carbon. The Clean-iX® technology platform from Multotec targets the recovery and extraction of metals from pulps and solutions using ion exchange resins. The process is directly applicable to leaching, extraction and elution unit processes
Multotec’s Clean-iX® economic benefits
Many valuable metals can be more effectively recovered through continuous ion exchange compared to conventional recovery routes. Clean-iX® offers the following advantages:
- Higher resource recovery rates
- Lower costs
- Lower environmental impact
Clean-iX® Technology processes and benefits
Clean-iX® technology is divided into metal extraction and elution.
Metal Extraction (adsorption)
Clean-IX® technology can be applied to clarified solutions and process slurries in mining applications. For slurries and pulps, Continuous Resin-In-Pulp (cRIP) enables the elimination of large solid-liquid separation circuits, reducing a plant’s capital and operating costs considerably.
Continuous Resin-In-Leach (cRIL), for leached slurries, combines leaching and extraction into a single stage. This process can significantly improve overall metal recovery and minimise the size of leaching/extraction circuits.
Elution (stripping or desorption)
The Clean-iX® elution systems use a series of moving packed bed columns, each one performing a different step. Using individual columns for each unit process allows each column to be specifically designed for that function. For elution, two types of columns can be used.
- Straight Column Elution: This utilises the moving packed bed column. Product solutions produced using this process are of higher concentration and purity than conventional batch/carousel technologies.
- U-Column (Concentration Desorption) Elution: Clean TeQ’s patented U-Column technology allows for concentration of the target metal in-column to produce a product eluate. The result is a much higher concentration and purity than any other available elution technology. Additional benefits are that all unit processes downstream of elution can be reduced in size and there is a large overall reduction in the consumption of chemicals used.