Extractive Recovery of Tantalum(V) and Niobium(V) with Octanol from Hydrofluoric Acid Solutions Containing Large Amounts of Titanium(IV)

Extractive recovery with n-octanol of tantalum(V) and niobium(V) from hydrofluoric acid solutions containing large amounts of titanium (up to 2-3 M) was studied. The conditions were found for separation of tantalum(V) and niobium(V) from titanium(IV), allowing recovery of 95.7 and 84.1% of tantalum and niobium fluoride complexes, respectively, in one extraction cycle, with 2.6% recovery of titanium.