Patent ID: 7166144

Claim:
A method for extracting and recovering a metal from an aqueous solution containing the metal in an extraction circuit comprising of the steps of: (1) feeding a first metal-rich aqueous leaching solution into a first extraction stage and a second metal-rich aqueous leaching solution into a parallel connected extraction stage, (2) in a second extraction stage, serially connected to the first extraction stage, contacting an organic phase comprised of a water insoluble and water immiscible solvent solution of an extraction reagent formulation substantially free of metal values with a first aqueous metal bearing solution from the first extraction stage to extract at least a portion of the metal into the organic phase to form a metal depleted aqueous raffinate solution and a first partially loaded organic phase; (3) in the parallel extraction stage, contacting the first partially loaded organic phase with the second aqueous metal-rich leaching solution to form a metal depleted aqueous raffinate solution and a second partially loaded organic phase having a metal content greater than the first partially loaded organic phase; and (4) in the first extraction stage, contacting the second partially loaded organic phase with the first aqueous metal-rich aqueous leaching solution to form the first aqueous metal bearing solution and a fully loaded organic phase, wherein the metal is continuously recovered by stripping from the fully loaded organic phase.