Closing the Loop in Ion Flotation: Recovery of Copper, Regeneration and Reuse of Collector from the Foam Phase by a Solvometallurgical Process

Ion flotation is an efficient separation technique for the recovery of metal ions from dilute aqueous solutions. Provided that both collected and surfactant are recovered foam phase, it could be considered as alternative to ion exchange, adsorption or solvent extraction in hydrometallurgy. However, most studies focusing only on by neglect development a closed-loop flow sheet with regeneration collector. As consequence, industrial implementation this hydrometallurgical operations limited. The objective paper was develop simple solvometallurgical process decomposition copper(II) tetraamine dodecyl sulfate sublates foams generated after copper–zinc ammoniacal solutions sodium (SDS). It possible recover copper almost quantitatively copper-bearing precipitate, mixing phase 8 g L−1 NaOH methanol solution. collector regenerated solution removal distillation its reusability tested five subsequent cycles.The efficiency SDS similar (ca. 80%) fresh without make-up. Based experimental results, conceptual proposed leachates flotation.