A METHOD FOR RECOVERING NOBLE METALS FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The method relates to the recovery of noble metals, specifically gold, silver and palladium, from materials to be recycle or to be dispose of, specifically from electric and electronic material discards, as for instance obsolete apparatuses, from electric power plant and electric and telephone control unit scraps, from electronic fractionation, production scraps and discards also deriving from the jewellery sector. STATE OF THE ART The peculiar physical-chemical properties of noble metals have determined an increasing use thereof for industrial purposes, specifically in electrical, electronic and microelectronic component production. This broad use makes the recovery thereof necessary both to limit environmental pollution due to disposal of products containing them and because of the relative shortage of natural sources thereof with a subsequent high impact on the cost thereof. Therefore, the recovery thereof first of all meets the need of limiting the environmental impact due to the disposal of the products containing them and of recycling metals having high economic value. As a whole, all of these elements determine a considerable interest for safe industrial processes that have a low environmental impact for the recovery of these noble metals.

Substantially, these metals are often included in other materials, thus leading them not to be immediately available to the action of chemical agents used for the recovery thereof. Currently, the traditional methods known to a person skilled in the art for the recovery of these metals generally provide that the material containing them is treated at high temperatures with aggressive agents such as chlorine (pyrometallurgical chlorination) or strong acids and oxidants (acid dissolution) or strong bases (alkaline dissolution) and that such metals are subsequently separated by conventional techniques. Pyrometallurgical chlorination is a very well-known process which is widely used for the recovery of noble metals. In general, the procedure exploits a thermal treatment occurring at high temperatures with a flow of gases which are very toxic

and/or aggressive and/or have a significant environmental impact, such as Cl ₂ , CO, COCI ₂ , CCI ₄ , S ₂ CI ₂ e SOCI ₂ or mixtures thereof.

A variety of other procedures have been suggested for the dissolution technique with strong acids and oxidants. However, such methods are based in general on the dissolution of metals having high oxidation potential, by using strong acids (extremely dangerous for the operators) such as sulphuric acid, nitric acid or a mixture of hydrochloric acid/nitric acid known with the name of 'aqua regia', followed by the recovery of the metals from the solution by means of conventional methods such as electrolytic deposition or selective complexation with appropriate binding agents, depending on the metal.

Overall, the problems arising for the recovery of noble metals are: i) the use of reagents that display extreme hazardousness for the environment and/or for the operators in relation to the toxicity and aggressiveness thereof; ii) the need of a pre-treatment in the case of the dissolution with strong oxidant acids or bases and subsequent extraction; iii) high exercise temperatures; iv) prolonged times for the dissolution of the metals.

Therefore, to overcome the above mentioned problems, it is a first purpose to provide a method for the recovery of noble metals in mild conditions with respect to the reagents, the temperatures and the dissolution times employed. A second purpose is to provide a method that may be carried out in a closed cycle to bypass problems regarding environmental pollution and the safety of operators. A further purpose is to provide a method for the recovery of noble metals which is easy to industrialise, economically advantageous and displays significant yields for the recovered metals. SUMMARY

These and other purposes are achieved by the object of the present invention, it providing a simple method for the recovery of noble methods in mild reaction conditions which are safe for operators. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for the recovery of noble metals characterised in that said metals are dissolved by materials containing them with an aqueous solution comprising potassium cyanide in a range from 1.5 to 2.5 % w/v (g/100 ml), sodium nitrobenzosulphonate in a

range from 0.6 to 1.0 % w/v (g/100 ml), thallium sulphate in a range from 0.015 to 0.025 % w/v (g/100 ml).

The subsequent extraction of the dissolved metals from the above described dissolution solution and the separation of the metals dissolved in the same may be carried out by conventional methods known to a person skilled in the art. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIGURE 1 : diagram of a process for the recovery of noble metals according to the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The object of the invention will be better understood in virtue of the following description of a preferred embodiment of the method which is given by way of non- limitative illustration of the present invention.

The method for the recovery of noble metals which is the object of the present invention is characterised essentially for the use of a composition consisting in an aqueous solution comprising three distinct reagents serving to rapidly and irreversibly dissolve the noble metals, especially gold, silver and palladium, contained in materials intended for recycling or disposal and specifically in electric and electronic material discards, or more precisely obsolete apparatuses, from electric power plant and electric and telephone control unit scraps, from electronic fractionation, and production scraps and discards, etc.

For this purpose, such materials containing the metals to be recovered are preferably grinded with a granulometry in the range from 0.05 cm to whole piece and preferably of 0.5 cm and more preferably of 0.10 cm. Such grinding is carried out according to known conventional methods and preferably by a two or three shafted granulator or rotating blade grinder having a power in the range from 15 to 25 HP and a yield from 400 to 800 kgs of material / hour depending on the type of material to grind.

The materials obtained in this manner which contain the metals to recover are then treated with an aqueous solution comprising potassium cyanide in a range from 1.5 to 2.5 % w/v (g/100 ml), sodium nitrobenzosulphonate in a range from 0.6 to 1.0 % w/v (g/100 ml), thallium sulphate in a range between 0.015 and 0.025 % w/v (g/100 ml) capable of dissolving such noble metals.

For the purposes of the present invention the aqueous solution preferably comprises 2 % w/v potassium cyanide, 0.8 % w/v sodium nitrobenzosulphonate, 0.02 % w/v thallium sulphate.

To obtain a virtually total dissolution of the metals following the exposure thereof to the reagents included in the dissolution solution such reagents must have appropriate chemical profiles, specifically potassium cyanide, which serves to bind the metals so as to obtain water soluble salts thereof, is a compound having CAS n° 143-33-9, sodium nitrobenzosulphonate, which serves to accelerate the dissolution chemical reaction, is a compound having CAS n ° 127-68-4 and thallium sulphate, which serves to make the chemical reaction irreversible, is a compound having CAS n° 7446-18-6.

Such a solution is prepared continuously by means of automatic dispensers in closed polypropylene or 316L steel tanks having an automatic mixer or circulating pump. The pursued dissolution of the metals is obtained by washing the materials containing them in different closed polypropylene or steel tanks, in which the mass formed by the materials is immersed in the dissolution solution, prepared as previously described, in a weight/volume (g/ml) ratio of the materials containing the noble metals: dissolution solution of at least 1 :2 and preferably comprised from 1 :2.5 to 1 :10 for a time in the range at least between 2 and 10 minutes at a temperature in the range between 40 °C and 60° C. Such a washing step is preferably carried out under ultrasonication and in rotating barrels. Indeed, dissolution may be further promoted by means of a 1500 - 2000 watt ultrasonication. Such an ultrasonication essentially serves to physically accelerate dissolution and thus answers the purpose of reducing times and/or making the action of the dissolution reagents employed more effective. The materials containing the noble materials to be recovered are immersed in the dissolution solution in mesh wired baskets to facilitate the removal of the exhausted solid materials and the rinsing thereof in other tanks containing water. Such a washing operation may be repeated up to saturation of the dissolution solution on the same materials or on other materials.

The exhausted solid materials remaining from the dissolution step may be rinsed in water and dried, for instance by centrifugation, to recover residual liquid consisting of the dissolution solution containing noble metals. Such a residual liquid is therefore pooled with the previously obtained aqueous solution containing the dissolved noble metals.

Subsequently, the metals contained in the concentrated solution may be separated and extracted by methods known to a person skilled in the art such as, for instance, electrolysis, zinc or aluminium precipitation with previous basification of the solution with alkali metal hydroxides, and preferably with NaOH, at a concentration of 1.5-3.0% % w/v (g/ml).

Among the separation methods, electrolysis is preferably used, as it ensures a virtually total recovery of the noble metals, especially gold. Electrolysis indeed allows to obtain a recovery of such metals up to 99.9%. In a possible embodiment, electrolysis may be carried out by ferrous anodes and lead cathodes with low voltage direct current, or in another possible embodiment the electrolysis process may be performed by anodes and cathodes consisting of pure gold sheets having 0.1 mm thickness hanging from silver supports placed in parallel at a 3 cm distance from one another, whereas the troughs are arranged in series. The current feeding the electrolytic bath may be equivalent to 8 A (= 1000 A/m ² ) with a voltage equivalent to 1.3 - 1.5 Volts.

Alternatively, the noble metals contained in the concentrated solution may be separated by zinc or aluminium precipitation in which Zn or Al are added to the solution containing the dissolved noble metals at a concentration in the range from 10 g/L and 15 g/L and preferably equivalent to 12 g/L, with a previous basification of the solution in a range of pH values in the range from 10 to 14 with alkali metal hydroxides, and preferably NaOH, in a concentration from 1.5 to 3 % w/v (g/ml). In this manner a solid residue is obtained which is recovered by sedimentation and subsequent vacuum filtration. This solid residue is then treated by a classical refining method by means of "aqua regia". Specifically, 2 L of H ₂ O, 450 ml of 65% HNOs, 2 L of 37% HCI are added for each kg of solid residue, and the mixture is reacted for approximately 4 hours, during which period the chloride of the dissolved noble metal (e.g. gold) salt is formed.

Then the mixture is filtered and the metal is subsequently selectively precipitated, by using up to 4 kg of ferrous sulphate eptahydrate for each kg of metal or as an alternative 1 (one) L of 23 % hydrazine. The gold precipitated in the form of a light brown metal sponge is melted at 1080°C to obtain the corresponding ingot. Instead, the solution devoid of dissolved metals is then concentrated to a volume of 10-15% with respect to the initial volume with the recovery of water which may be recycled for the preparation of the starting dissolution solution. Such a concentration may be obtained by means of known means, for instance heat evaporation, though it is preferably obtained by vacuum evaporation. The residue remaining after this step, which contains water, the reagents of the dissolution solution and other non noble metals is then totally concentrated by drying, thus obtaining water on one side and the dry reagents and base metals on the other. This mass is sent to specialised centres or industries for the recovery of the metals and the final disposal of the chemical reagents. In general, in a possible embodiment thereof, the method object of the present invention may be represented according to the process diagram in figure 1 and comprises the steps of: a) preparing a dissolution solution for such metals comprising potassium cyanide in a range from 1.5 to 2.5 % w/v (g/100 ml), sodium nitrobenzosulphonate in a range from 0.6 to 1.0 % w/v

(g/100 ml), thallium sulphate in a range between 0.015 and 0.025 % w/v (g/100 ml); b) optionally, grinding the discard materials; c) washing the materials containing the metals to be recovered once or more with the aqueous dissolution solution of step a) to complete saturation of the dissolution solution itself; d) rinsing and drying the exhausted solid residue to be removed with the recovery of residual liquid consisting of dissolution solution containing noble metals of the previous step and recycling the water for step a); e) concentrating the saturated noble metal solution obtained in step c) with the addition of the liquid obtained in step d);

f) separating and extracting noble metals from the concentrated solution obtained in step e) and recycling water in step a); g) concentrating the solution devoid of noble metals obtained in step f); h) drying and removing the exhausted discard solid residue. By the method described, very high recovery yields may be obtained for noble metals and, specifically, with one litre of a dissolution solution containing 2% potassium cyanide, 0.8% sodium nitrobenzosulphonate and 0.02% thallium sulphate, 12 to 15 grams of noble metals may be recovered from electric material discards with a dissolution rate in the order of 10 minutes that decreases for gold, silver and palladium.

Examples of the recovery of noble metals according to the invention from different discard materials are described by way of non-limitative example.

Example 1

Discard material: gold contacts sample N° 1 grams 12.72 solution volume 0.300 litres sample N° 2 grams 14.45 solution volume 0.300 litres sample N° 3 grams 14.73 solution volume 0.300 litres Immersion times: 5 - 15 - 30 minutes Au content g/kg reading by VARIAN AAS 220F apparatus sample N° 1 readings 5.990 - 6.025 - 6.048 average 6.021 sample N° 2 readings 5.838 - 5.830 - 5.846 average 5.838 sample N° 3 readings 6.160 - 6.151 - 6.151 average 6.154 AVERAGE OF 3 SAMPLES grams of Au per Kg of discard 6.004 Example 2 Discard material: gold jacks sample N° 1 grams 28.33 solution volume 0.300 litres sample N° 2 grams 19.47 solution volume 0.300 litres sample N° 3 grams 24.1 1 solution volume 0.300 litres Immersion times: 5 -15 - 30 minutes Au content g/kg reading by VARIAN AAS 220F apparatus sample N° 1 readings 1.998 - 2.024 - 2.022 average 2.018 sample N° 2 readings 2.200 - 2.218 - 2.269 average 2.229

sample N° 3 readings 2.098 - 2.090 - 2.088 average 2.092 AVERAGE OF 3 SAMPLES grams of Au per Kg of discard 2.1 13 Example 3

Discard material: electronic card size 32.0 x 18.5 cm Weight grams 919.30 solution volume litres 2.600 Immersion time: 5 - 10 - 20 minutes

Au content g/kg reading by VARIAN AAS 220F apparatus Readings: 0.745 - 0.730 - 0.720

AVERAGE grams of Au per Kg of discard 0.735 With respect to the known methods, the method object of the present invention is very effective and less polluting and hazardous for the operators because it is carried out in mild conditions and closed cycle. Furthermore, it is especially cost- effective as far as reagent costs and system running are concerned, as well as being advantageous in terms of recovered metals yield.