Abstract
This research paper describes the efforts conducted for the recovery of Ni, Co, Mn and V from tailings of spent catalyst recycling operations. The spent catalysts are solid wastes and contain many valuable metals and in quantities that are feasible to extract. Laboratory testwork was conducted for the smelting of AC tails using coke and lime to improve the value metals to AC tails ratio. After smelting, leaching of the alloy was conducted in sulphuric environment using peroxide which offers a relatively economical method for the metal extraction from the alloy. The laboratory tests performed on several alloys identified that the metals can be extracted with high recovery rates, however, the kinetics of dissolution were slow. OLI and flowsheet modeling tools were used to compare the leaching results.