Hokkaido University · Environmental Science
Professor Kosei Aikawa's research lab specializes in mineral processing and hydrometallurgy, focusing on the efficient recovery and separation of valuable metals from complex sulfide ores and secondary resources. The lab investigates advanced flotation techniques to selectively recover chalcopyrite and galena while depressing sphalerite and other gangue minerals, particularly in the presence of problematic soluble compounds like anglesite. A key research direction involves the use of chemical pretreatments—such as EDTA leaching and cementation with zero-valent metals—to mitigate metal activation effects and enable selective metal recovery. The lab also explores the application of electron-mediating metal oxides in selective metal recovery processes, especially in ammoniacal thiosulfate systems for gold and copper. These efforts are aligned with sustainable resource management and the development of circular economy solutions in mining and urban mining.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
The purpose of this study is to propose the flotation procedure of seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) ores to separate chalcopyrite and galena as froth and sphalerite, pyrite, and other gangue minerals as tailings, which is currently facing difficulties due to the presence of water-soluble compounds. The obtained SMS ore sample contains CuFeS2, ZnS, FeS2, SiO2, and BaSO4 in addition to PbS and PbSO4 as Pb minerals. Soluble compounds releasing Pb, Zn2+, Pb2+, and Fe2+/3+ are also contained. When angl
The presence of anglesite (PbSO4) in complex sulfide ores negatively affects the separation of Cu-Pb sulfides and sphalerite (ZnS) due to lead activation, and PbSO4 rejected to tailings dams contaminates the surrounding environment with lead. To address these problems, this study investigated the application of ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) pretreatment extracting PbSO4 to ZnS flotation and the recovery of the extracted Pb2+ as zero-valent Pb by cementation using zero-valent iron (ZV
Porphyry copper deposits are important sources of copper and typically processed by flotation to produce copper concentrates. As mining areas become deeper, the amounts of impurities, such as sphalerite, can be increased in copper ores, so the appropriate depression of sphalerite floatability should be achieved to obtain saleable copper concentrates. In this study, the flotation behaviors of chalcopyrite and sphalerite in model samples mimicking copper ores with high Cu/Zn ratios (i.e., the rati
Iron oxides (hematite, Fe2O3, and magnetite, Fe3O4), previously used as electron mediators in the galvanic system with zero-valent aluminum (ZVAl), have been shown to recover Au upon cementation in Au–Cu ammoniacal thiosulfate media selectively, and this warrants further investigation. This research is focused on investigating the role of the semiconductive properties of metal oxides by performing a cementation experiment by mixing 0.15 g of electron mediators (Fe3O4, Fe2O3, TiO2 (anatase and ru
循環経済（サーキュラーエコノミー）の実現に向けて，天然金属資源の効率的な利用や都市鉱山開発（リサイクル）による資源循環は，ますます重要になっている。金属生産における製錬前処理工程において，物理選別では鉱石中の有用鉱物や廃製品中の有用金属を一次濃縮（固体原料化）する。筆者はこれまで，物理選別技術の一種である浮選を用いた鉱石中の有用鉱物の選別に関する研究に取り組んできた。本稿では，筆者がこれまでに検討してきた天然鉱山開発における浮選プロセスの改善事例を紹介するとともに，都市鉱山開発への浮選適用の課題について考察する。
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