JSC “Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant”, Chelyabinsk, Russia:

A. V. Zatonskiy, Technical Director
O. V. Belyakov, Head of Hydrometallurgical Shop
P. A. Kozlov, Head of Engineering Center, e-mail: pak@zinc.ru
A. V. Nedospasov, Leading Production Engineer of Engineering Center

Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology (Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) designed new “mixer-settler” type extractors ESOT-1,0-15 (ЭСОТ) (polypropylene) and ESOT-0,8-5,5 (polyethylene with titan turbine type mixers). In 2013, these extractors were installed and tested in indium extraction department of hydrometallurgical shop of Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant. The modernized extraction unit is a cascade of three extraction (ESOT-1,0-15) and six re-extraction (ESOT-0,8-5,5) sequentially connected blocks. Production capacity of the unit is 15 m³/h of solution, counted as total volume of both phases. Extractor ESOT-1,0-15 is designed for indium extraction from sulphate-chloride acid solutions in raised temperatures (about 60 ^оС) with wide productive capacity range (max. 15 m³/h of solution as total volume of phases). Extractor ESOT-0,8-5,5 is designed for the processes of indium reextraction and extracting agent washing. Its production capacity does not exceed 5 m³/h of solution, counted as total volume of phases. Application of the units ESOT-1,0-15 and ESOT-0,8-5,5 made possible to carry out the following measures:
– efficient extraction in a wide range of the unit productive capacity (3–8 m³/h) of water phase with organic and water phases ratio 1:3 (not counting recirculation of organic phase);
– minimization of bilateral carry-over of water and organic phases (organic phase carry-over with raffinate was 0.2–0.5%, while water phase carry-over, saturated with extracting agent, was less than 0.3%);
– minimization of indium loss with raffinate (to 6–7 mg/l with productivity of 5–7.5 m³/h of water phase);
– ensuring of reliable performance of extraction unit with higher silica acid concentration in initial solution (to 0.4 g/dm³);
– consumption decrease on the unit production (cost decrease of basic materials by more than 10 times);
– maintenance simplification and extraction unit repair.

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