TOP manufacturers believe that the market size of extractants directly depends on the global demand for various metals and the proportion of hydrometallurgical plants. In recent years, the demand for nonferrous metals is generally on the rise. In theory, all metals can be hydrometallurgy. At present, copper and rare earth are better varieties used in hydrometallurgy. Due to the great success of copper hydrometallurgy in recent years, the research and development field of hydrometallurgy has gradually expanded to zinc, aluminum, manganese, nickel and other non-ferrous metals, and the application market of extractants is very broad.

TOP manufacturers believe that extractants can be divided into hydroxyoxime, amine and phosphorus. Hydroxoxime extractants are mainly used to extract copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel and other metals; Amine extractants are mainly used in the extraction of rare and precious metals such as uranium, gold and silver; Phosphorus like extractants are widely used in the extraction of nickel, cobalt, rare earth, zinc and other metals. As metal extractants are a niche market in the chemical industry and have been monopolized by large foreign companies, there is no public data on their production and sales.

TOP manufacturers believe that with the increasingly mature hydrometallurgical process featuring low cost, small investment and applicable to low-grade ores and polymetallic associated ores, more and more new metal smelting enterprises choose the hydrometallurgical process, and the extractant market is growing. Take copper extractant as an example. At present, the global copper hydrometallurgy output is 6 million tons/year. With more and more hydrometallurgy processes, copper extractants are increasing by 25-30% every year, and the market prospect is very broad.

TOP manufacturers believe that extraction is an experimental technology and method, which makes use of the difference in the solubility of components in mutually insoluble two phases to transfer one or more components from the original phase to another phase with higher solubility, thus achieving separation and purification. According to the difference of two phases, extraction can be divided into solid-liquid extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, gas-liquid extraction, etc. In chemical experiments, the other phase selected is usually solvent, also known as solvent extraction. Sometimes, in order to better realize the phase transfer of substances, some chemical reagents are often added to change the dissolution behavior of a substance in two phases through some chemical reaction. This kind of extraction is called chemical extraction, and the chemical reagents added are called extractants.

TOP manufacturers believe that extraction is a process of transferring the extracted substances from the original phase to another phase with greater solubility. Physical extraction refers to the extraction that depends on the solubility difference of the extracted material between the two phases to achieve transfer. If the solubility of the extracted substance in the extraction solvent is not ideal, the structure and solubility of the extracted substance can be changed by adding an extractant to react with the extracted substance chemically. The extraction realized by chemical reaction is called chemical extraction. In addition to the solubility, it is also affected by other conditions, such as the composition of two-phase solution, pH, temperature, etc.