Ce RECOVERY METHOD

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a Ce recovery method that makes it possible to selectively recover a high-purity Ce from a raw material containing Ce and other medium and heavy rare-earth elements and impurities in a short period of time and at low cost using equipment of smaller scale than the conventional one.SOLUTION: The Ce recovery method comprises: a medium-to-heavy rare-earth separation step of separating a raw material containing light rare-earth elements and medium-to-heavy rare-earth elements into a light rare-earth solution containing the light rare-earth elements and a medium-to-heavy rare-earth solution containing the medium-to-heavy rare-earth elements by solvent extraction method; and a Ce separation step of adding an oxidizing agent to the light rare-earth solution to oxidize Ce in the light rare-earth solution and change the ion valence, followed by adjusting the pH to precipitate the Ce and subjecting the precipitated Ce to solid liquid separation to obtain the precipitate of the Ce.