RECOVERY OF METALS

A method for the recovery of metals from a feed stream (1) containing one or more value metals, the method comprising: (i) passing the feed stream (1) to an alkaline leach (20) to form a slurry (5) including a pregnant leach liquor of soluble metal salts and a solid residue; (ii) separating the pregnant leach liquor (8) and the solid residue (7) of step (i); (iii) passing the separated pregnant leach liquor (8) of step (ii) to a solvent extraction step (42), wherein a loaded extractant (9) containing copper and nickel, and a raffinate (19) containing cobalt and lithium, are produced; (iv) recovering cobalt (24) from the raffinate (19) of step (iii); and (v) recovering lithium (38), ammonia (28) and ammonium chloride (39) from the cobalt depleted liquor (21) of step (iv).