Method for the Recovery of Indium from Diluted Bioleaching Solutions

Using a commercially available solvent impregnated resin, Lewatit TP272, in an ion exchange process, it was possible to extract up to 90 % indium from a feed containing as little as 1 mg/L indium in the presence of high amounts of impurities, i.e. 1000 mg/L iron and zinc each. It was demonstrated that through gradient regeneration of obtained loaded ion-exchange resin, it is possible to yield a solution containing as much as 400 mg/L indium along with 400 mg/L iron, thereby upgrading its purity more than 600 times. Moreover, it was shown that this solution can be fed into an existing solvent extraction procedure which would yield an indium oxide with more than 99 % purity.