Leach and Solution Process Testing

Often, the first step in developing a metallurgical process involves getting the target material into a suitable form from Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) or other hydrometallurgical processing techniques. This can involve leaching (using chemical reagents to transfer metals and other materials from solid into the solution phase), appropriate modification of solution conditions (i.e., adjustment of pH, ion content, EH), precipitation (transfer of some or all solution contents from solution to solid phase by use of chemical reagents), liquid/solid separation, cracking (pre-leach chemical treatment of target solids to make them more amenable to leach), countercurrent and other multistage leach techniques, and many other methods.

Metals U.S. works with process output solutions, using techniques such as precipitation, reverse osmosis, and electrowinning to provide high quality products and best management of waste streams. Selection of optimal solution techniques requires strong knowledge and experience in chemistry and metallurgy. The Metals U.S. team has had success and has won acclaim for developing solution processes that can be game changers for processing efficacy and economics, as well as enabling more effective downstream processing with SPE or other methods. Metals U.S. uses both standard and novel techniques, and can provide cutting edge facility, testing, and scale-up capability to provide rapid, cost effective, and state of the art outcomes for your solution processing needs. Metals U.S.’s partner company, IntelliMet, can provide small scale condition optimization and screening, and Metals U.S. provides scale-up and piloting capability for solution processing at our pilot site in Missoula. Solution processing is often performed in concert with a larger metallurgy program involving SPE processing and other methods.