RECOVERY OF BERYLLIUM FROM SPOR MOUNTAIN, UTAH, ORE BY SOLVENT EXTRACTION AND CAUSTIC STRIPPING
A study of Be recovery from sulfate leach liquor by di2-ethylhexyl phosphate (ERPA) solvent extraction inconjunction with caustic stripping is described. The work was one phase of Bureau of Mines research on process development for Spor Mountain, Utah, ores. Solution for the solvent extraction studies was prepared by H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ leaching of ore contairing 0.8% BeO. Before solvent extraction of Be, the leach liquor was treated to prevent coextraction of Fe by either removal of ferric iron by amine solvent extraction or reduction of ferric iron to nonextractable ferrous iron by treatment with SO/ sub 2/. Be was extracted from the aqueous leach liquor by countercurrent multistage contacting with a kerosene solunion of EHPA. The loaded organic solution was stripped with NaOH solution. Subsequently, BeOH was precipitated by boiling the sodium beryllate strip solution and converted to BeO of 98% BeO-grade by calcining. Mnterial of this grade can be directiy processed into Be --Cu alioy or be used as starting material for further refining to produce high- purity, nuclear-grade Be. Over 90% of the Be contained in the leach liquor was recovered as BeO. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Bureau of Mines. Salt Lake City Metallurgy Research Center
- NSA Number:
- NSA-17-012357
- OSTI ID:
- 4707557
- Report Number(s):
- BM-RI-6173
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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