Recovery of rhenium from copper leach solution by ion exchange

Abstract

There is current interest in recovering rhenium from solutions produced as a result of copper heap and stockpile leaching. Copper-bearing leach solutions typically contain rhenium at concentrations near 1mg/L. This work has demonstrated that rhenium can be efficiently extracted from these solutions using weakly basic anion exchange resins. Breakthrough of Re occurs after approximately 5000BVs of solution flow. Rhenium is eluted from the resin using 1M NaOH, producing a rhenium-rich solution containing about 1400mg/L Re. The overall concentration ratio is about 2400:1.