Is There Ni in My Liquor? A Hands-On Laboratory Exercise for Relating Chemistry to Extractive Metallurgy

A simple, quick, and safe laboratory exercise is detailed that provides a link between chemistry, extractive metallurgy, and hydrometallurgy. Students are provided with a scenario in which they need to "research" a procedure to selectively recover nickel from simple "ore liquors". In this context; the experiment focuses on the selective precipitation of metal ions from solution using simple chelating agents. Students work in teams to complete separate parts of the experiment, testing a possible procedure for an industry client. The teams then come together as a group to interpret and discuss the results before deciding what to report to the client. The experiment was developed to be completed in a single 40 min session and has been successfully conducted with over 200 middle- to upper-level high school students.