Metallurgical operations:

The rich deposits of the metals are exhausting and the metallurgists have to depend upon low grade reserves and other leaner sources like the metal wastes. For the recovery of metal from low grade ores or the metal wastes, the matrices are first leached with various reagents. The resulting leach liquors besides the metal of interest contain several ionic impurities. The ion exchange technique has proved to be very useful in increasing the metal values of the leached liquors. Besides this, the resins are used to recover metal values in the tailings of other hydrometallurgical operations. Ion exchange resins have also been employed for the upgrading of impure concentrates. In the metallurgy of uranium, it is quantitatively recovered from the leach liquor by means of anion exchange. Ion exchange has been used for the recovery of gold. Another example of the successful use of ion exchange is in the recovery of chromium from electroplating waste.

The separations like molybdenum from rhenium, zirconium from hafnium and niobium from tantalum have been achieved using ion exchange chromatography and the conditions developed are used in metallurgical operations.Several anions interfere in the estimation of various cations and vice-versa. In such situations, ion exchange chromatography is confined to inorganics.