Nickel solvent extraction from cold purification filter cakes of Angouran mine concentrate using LIX984N

Cold purification filter cakes generated in the hydrometallurgical processing of Angouran mine zinc concentrate commonly contain significant amounts of Zn, Cd, and Ni ions and thus are valuable resources for metal recovery. In this research, a nickel containing solution that was obtained from sulfuric acid leaching of the filter cake following cadmium and zinc removal was subjected to solvent extraction experiments using 10vol% LIX984N diluted in kerosene. Under optimum experimental conditions (pH 5.3, volume ratio of organic/aqueous (O:A) = 2:1, and contact time = 5 min), more than 97.1% of nickel was extracted. Nickel was stripped from the loaded organic by contacting with a 200 g/L sulfuric acid solution, from which 77.7% of nickel was recovered in a single contact at the optimum conditions (pH 1–1.5, O:A = 5:1, and contact time = 15 min).