Veolia Water Technologies provides the expertise required for several metals and mining production processes.
HPD® Evaporation and crystallization systems are often a critical process component in evaporites mining, by-product recovery and internal process water management within the mining and metals processing industries.
Through our HPD evaporation and crystallization technologies, we provide systems for evaporites mining, co-products from extraction & refining, by-products, and tailings & bitterns.
Evaporites Mining
- Potash: potassium chloride (KCl)
- Salt: sodium chloride (NaCl)
- Soda Ash: sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)
- Nitrates: NaNO3
- Sulfates: Na2SO4
Co-Products from Extraction & Refining
- SOP: sulfate of potash (K2SO4)
- Nickel / Colbalt: ammonium sulfate ((NH2)2SO4)
- Chromium: sodium sulfate (Na2SO4)
- Precious Metals: nickel sulfate (NiSO4)
- Alumina: sodium aluminate (NaAlO2)
By-products, Tailings & Bitterns
- Metals: ammonium sulfate ((NH2)2SO4), sodium sulfate (Na2SO4)
- Salt, Solar: magnesium sulfate (MgSO4)
Processing
- Concentration (e.g. Kaolin)
- Lean (stripped) Stream Recycle (e.g. Spent Alumina/Bayer Process, oxalate removal systems)
- Water Recovery / Volume Reduction
Veolia has supplied several process systems to leading lithium suppliers worldwide as well as having performed extensive analytical, bench and pilot-scale testing.
- Lithium brine concentration
- Lithium salts crystallization
- Lithium salts purification by re-crystallization
- By-products recovery from lithium processing
- Impurity removal (precipitation, ion exchange, . . .)
- Solid/liquid separation systems and solids handling
Our lithium processing capabilities include:
Lithium Salts Crystallization
- Lithium Chloride (LiCl)
- Lithium Carbonate (Li2CO3)
- Lithium Hydroxide anhydrous and monohydrate (LiOH)
- Lithium Bromide (LiBr)
- Lithium Phosphate (Li3PO4)
By-product Recovery from Lithium Processing
- Potassium Chloride (KCl)
- Sodium Sulfate (Na2SO4)
- Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
- Potassium Sulfate (K2SO4)
- Boric Acid (H3BO3)
HPD specialty metal crystallization systems from Veolia have processed a wide variety of specialty metals such as vanadium, tungsten, titanium, silver, zinc, lithium and molybdenum. These systems have recovered metals from spent catalysts and even produced lithium chloride for production of lithium batteries.
Copper and nickel sulfate crystallization is part of ore refining and recovered from spent metal processing solutions in Veolia designed systems. In addition, HPD crystallizers recover fertilizer grade ammonium sulfate generated in the refining of nickel from mined ores.