Recovery of vanadium from direct acid leaching solutions of weathered crust vanadium‐titanium magnetite via solvent extraction with N235

In this study, we developed a new method for the efficient extraction and separation of V from direct acid leaching solutions of weathered crust VTi magnetite using N235/TBP, sodium sulfate (Na2SO4), and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) as the extraction system and washing and stripping agents, respectively. The effects of various experimental conditions on the extraction results were investigated, and the extraction efficiency of V was approximately 70% with <4% Fe co-extraction under optimal conditions. A four-stage countercurrent extraction method was used to extract >96% of V and <4.5% of Fe, and the separation factor of V/Fe was 541. Upon washing the V-loaded organic phase with a 0.70 mol/L Na2SO4 solution, >96% of Fe and ~1% of V were removed. Moreover, upon stripping the purified organic phase with a 0.70 mol/L Na2CO3 solution, >98% of V was recovered. The effects of other impurities on the separation of V were negligible. Moreover, the stripped organic phase can be recycled sustainably during extraction. In this study, we selectively separated V and provided a new method for accelerating the purification and enrichment of V, which is present at low concentrations in acid leaching solutions.