High surface area cathode assembly, system including the assembly, and method of using same

Abstract

A cathode assembly, a system including the cathode assembly, and method of using the assembly and system are disclosed. The cathode assembly includes high surface area material to allow efficient recovery of metal at reduced current densities at the cathode, which allows increased rates of metal recovery to be obtained, while maintaining desired properties of the electrowon metal.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]The present invention generally relates to cathode assemblies for use in electrolytic metal recovery processes. More particularly, the invention relates to high surface area cathode assemblies for electrolytic recovery of metal, to systems including the cathode assemblies, and to methods of using the cathode assemblies and systems.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Electrowinning is often used in hydrometallurgical processing of ore to recover metal, such as copper, silver, platinum group metals, molybdenum, zinc, nickel, cobalt, uranium, rhenium, rare earth metals, combinations thereof, and the like from ore. The recovery of metal from ore often includes exposing the ore to a leaching process (e.g., atmospheric leaching, pressure leaching, agitation leaching, heap leaching, stockpile leaching, thin-layer leaching, vat leaching, or the like) to obtain a pregnant leach solution (PLS) including desired metal ions, optionally purifying and concentrating the pregna...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]The present invention generally relates to a cathode assembly for use in an electrolytic metal recovery process, to a system including the cathode assembly and to methods of using the cathode assembly and system. While the ways in which the present invention addresses the various drawbacks of the prior art are discussed in greater detail below, in general, the cathode assembly, system, and method in accordance with various exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a cathode assembly having a high cathode active area, which allows for increased efficiency of the electrowinning system and / or increased metal recovery rates while maintaining recovered metal purity.

Problems solved by technology

Over a certain current density, known as limiting current density, reactions, other than metal deposition and which are generally undesirable, begin to occur.

Thus, although higher current densities may be desirable to achieve higher plating rates, the higher current densities may be problematic.

Another difficulty with traditional electrowinning is metal recovery from low quality liquid streams, such as acid mine drainage, low grade PLS, bleed streams, and remediation streams.

Traditional cathode assemblies may require high current densities to extract metal from low quality streams, which may result in higher energy costs and increased impurities in the deposited metal.

Additionally, traditional electrowinning cell systems are typically large, industrial scale apparatus which operate in permanent locations.

In certain circumstances, removal and transport of metal bearing liquid may create logistic difficulties, and may lead to increased costs and time associated with recovering the metal.

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