Advanced Hydrometallurgy and Recycling/Utilization of Metallic Resources

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 1461

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. National Engineering Research Center of Green Recycling for Strategic Metal Resources, Beijing 100190, China
2. Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Interests: nickel laterite ore; acid leaching; enhanced oxidation by microbubbles; electrochemical synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Hebei Agriculture University, Baoding 071001, China
Interests: inorganic energy storage material; sodium ion battery; lithium-ion battery; lithium-sulfur battery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. National Engineering Research Center of Green Recycling for Strategic Metal Resources, Beijing 100190, China
2. Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Interests: hydrometallurgy; chemical processes; energy materials; extraction and separation of metal resources; utilization of metallurgical solid waste
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrometallurgical processes play an essential role in the recycling, recovery, and utilization of metallic resources, which include separating, enriching, leaching, and extracting metals from resources like ores, deposits, concentrates, and industrial and mining wastes.

This Special Issue aims to collect the latest contributions regarding emerging and sustainable hydrometallurgy/extractive metallurgy technologies, as well as applications in the extraction, recovery, and reuse of base, noble, and pure metals, rare earth elements, and energy metallic materials in primary and secondary resources.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Hydrometallurgical processes with applications in valuable or critical metal recovery, including copper, chromium, uranium, thorium, gold, silver, zinc, cobalt, nickel, lithium, rare earth, etc.
  • Solution concentration and purification, including precipitation, cementation; distillation, adsorption, solvent extraction, ion exchange, electrowinning, etc.
  • Environmentally/sustainable leaching, chemical processes, and economic assessment.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Materials.

Dr. Zhihui Yu
Dr. Xiaoxian Zhao
Prof. Dr. Jingkui Qu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • extractive metallurgy
  • hydrometallurgy
  • metal recovery and recycling
  • green chemistry
  • mechanism
  • selective separation
  • kinetics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 2650 KiB  
Article
The Application of the Radiotracer Techniques in Hydrometallurgy: A Method for Online Monitoring of Solvent Extraction Processes Using 181Hf
by Nelson Rotich Kiprono, Irena Herdzik-Koniecko, Tomasz Smolinski, Marcin Rogowski and Andrzej G. Chmielewski
Minerals 2025, 15(3), 268; https://doi.org/10.3390/min15030268 - 4 Mar 2025
Viewed by 1351
Abstract
The increasing demand for critical metals essential for renewable energy technologies necessitates efficient and environmentally sustainable extraction methods. Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and similar ore deposits serve as abundant sources of primary elements while also incorporating a suite of strategically significant trace elements, [...] Read more.
The increasing demand for critical metals essential for renewable energy technologies necessitates efficient and environmentally sustainable extraction methods. Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and similar ore deposits serve as abundant sources of primary elements while also incorporating a suite of strategically significant trace elements, including REEs and Hf, among others. Mixer–settler units are extensively utilized in metal purification processes. It is important to develop approaches for tracking the metal’s extraction process online and optimizing flow dynamics. One widely adopted technique for evaluating the flow dynamics of the various components is the residence time distribution (RTD) measurement, which provides insights into the hydrodynamic behavior of process reactors. This study explored the application of radiotracer techniques for online monitoring of solvent extraction processes in hydrometallurgy, focusing on Hf recovery. A mixer–settler system was employed using di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as the extractant and the 1M HNO3 aqueous phase of Ti ore. The radiotracer 181Hf was synthesized via neutron activation and introduced into the system to track phase distribution and RTD. Real-time monitoring revealed over 95% extraction efficiency within 133 min (8000 s). The RTD studies validated system performance using perfect mixers in series and axial dispersion models. The calculated mean residence time of 100 min (6000 s) closely aligned with the theoretical 104 min (6240 s), confirming the model accuracy. The findings demonstrate the viability of radiotracers in monitoring solvent extraction, offering real-time insights into flow dynamics and extraction efficiency. Full article
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