Liquid–liquid extraction of tantalum and niobium by octanol from sulfate leach liquor

Extraction of tantalum and niobium from sulfate leach liquor of south Gabal El-A’urf polymineralized ore material was carried out by using octanol. The latter was contacted with the sulfate leach liquor prepared after fusing the highly mineralized ore sample with potassium bisulphate in a weight ratio of 1/3 at 650 °C for 3 h. From the McCabe–Thiele diagram, it is proposed that three extraction stages are sufficient to extract most of the Ta and Nb contents efficiently at the optimum extraction conditions of 100% octanol, and A/O ratio of 1/1.A highly pure product of Ta was achieved by keeping the pH of the leach liquor at 2.0 with contact time of 15 min. With respect to Nb, pH of 0.7 and contact time of 5 min were sufficient to extract most of the Nb contents efficiently. Finally, a technical flowsheet was constructed.