Solvent extraction techniques are widely used in the pharmaceutical and petroleum
industries. Solvent extraction was first applied in the metallurgical industry for uranium purification and the processing of spent nuclear fuels. Until lately the process has been primarily confined to the rare metals industries.
Recently intensive research and development have been directed to wars the use of the process for the commoner metals and commercial plants have now been built for the extraction of copper from leach liquers. Solvent extraction is now creating widespread interest in the mining an? metallurgical industries.
The techniques may be applied to a wide field activities including the recovery of metals from ores, waste liquors containing less than I gram/liter of recoverable metals and scrap. Solvent extrusion not only provides a means of concentrating a feed liquor with a low metal content, but it also enables metal values to be separated and selectively recovered from liquors containing a number of metals. These features can lead to the process being used for the profitable exploitation of low - grade or complex ore- bodies and dumps which have hitherto been considered uneconomic.
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