Evaluation of influence of initial concentration of Cu²⁺, Fe³⁺ and Ni²⁺ in the recovery of metal ions using chelating resin Dowex XUS43605

It is believed that the demand for metals will grow in the near future due to the diverse applications they have, and as a consequence, their price should increase. As a result, the mining industry faces new challenges for future demand to be achieved. For this, the mining companies seek to improve their production processes, such as the recovery of metallic ions present in leach liquors and tailings. Copper, iron and nickel are easily found metals in atmospheric leaching liquor of limonite nickel ore and can be recovered by ion exchange with solid adsorbent. The present work evaluated the influence of the concentration of the three metallic ions (Cu²⁺, Fe³⁺ and Ni²⁺) on the adsorption process of chelating resin Dowex XUS43605. The experiments were carried out in batch. 1g of resin was placed in contact with 50mL of synthetic solution with pH equal to 1.5. The resin and solution were kept under stirring for 120min at 25°C. The results showed that high concentrations of metal ions decrease the adsorption by the resin. The most extracted metal ion was copper corresponding to 100% when its concentration was equal to 70ppm. (author)