Research & development

Cognis’ long term commitment to improving solvent extraction technology has resulted in a series of important "firsts" for the mining and metal processing industries:

First tertiary amine for the recovery of uranium First quaternary amine for the recovery of various metals First commercial oxime copper solvent extraction reagents First commercial beta diketone extractant for copper recovery First non-modified oxime mixtures for copper recovery First commercial reagents for nickel extraction from ammoniacal solutions First guanidine based solvent extraction reagents and resin for recovery of gold from cyanide systems

This commitment continues today as teams of expert chemists and experienced field engineers are at work in various Cognis locations on the next "first." Cognis has state of the art research facilities located in Cincinnati, Ohio and Düsseldorf, Germany, where teams of chemists are working on topics such as:

• Improved understanding of solvent extraction processes
• Development of new extractants for copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc
• Improved manufacturing processes for the current line of LIX® reagents

These specialists work in close cooperation with the experienced field engineers located at the primary applications laboratory in Tucson, Arizona with input from colleagues at affiliates in South America, Australia, South Africa and Germany. This constant interactive analysis in the field and in the laboratory is the basis for Cognis’ past and future success in bringing advanced technologies in metal leaching, solvent extraction and final metal recovery to its customers around the world.