Process for treating tungstate solutions to reduce molybdenum impurity and other impurity content

摘要

Tungstate solutions are purified by a precipitation process followed by two anion exchange processes to reduce molybdenum and arsenic impurity content. The precipitation involves acidification of the original highly basic tungstate solution to pH of 7 to 10 without addition of precipitating agents and separates out the bulk of impurities other than Mo, As. The first anion exchange process removes As. Then a remaining filtrate from the latter process is treated with sulfides to form thiomolybdates from impurity Mo content and the thiomolybdates are then separated out from the tungstate solution in a second anion exchange process.