Dr Chu Yong Cheng is a Research Team Leader at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering.

Dr Chu Yong Cheng: specialising in solvent extraction techniques

Dr Chu Yong Cheng leads research in solvent extraction techniques for base metals recovery.

• 10 March 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Chu Yong Cheng is a Research Team Leader at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering.

He is an internationally recognised researcher with more than 40 years of experience in minerals processing and hydrometallurgy.

Dr Cheng leads research on developing synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) technologies to meet the mining industry's needs for the separation, purification and recovery of metals, particularly base metals including nickel and cobalt.

This research has led to the development of direct solvent extraction (DSX) processes to avoid intermediate precipitation and re-leach steps, so that process flowsheets could be simplified and capital and operating costs reduced.

Dr Cheng's current research interests include:

• synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) technologies
• direct solvent extraction (DSX) process flowsheet
• recycling metal values from spent batteries and catalysts
• nickel laterite process development 
• nickel, cobalt, copper and zinc hydrometallurgical processing  
• titanium, scandium, niobium and tantalum hydrometallurgical processing.

Background

After completing an undergraduate degree in mineral processing in 1968, Dr Cheng worked as a Mineral Processing Engineer in China for 12 years.

He then went on to complete a Masters degree and continued on as a lecturer at what is now known as Central South University in China.

Dr Cheng arrived in Australia in 1984 as a visiting scholar and stayed on to complete his Doctorate in Hydrometallurgy at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

Dr Cheng held several metallurgical research roles at various organisations before starting at CSIRO in 1998. 

With more than 40 years of engineering and research experience in minerals processing and hydrometallurgy, Dr Cheng has gained expertise in many areas, including:

• high tension separation
• flotation and magnetic separation
• iron ore processing
• base metals hydrometallurgy
• nickel laterite processing
• recycling metals from spent batteries and catalysts
• solvent extraction.

Academic qualifications

Dr Cheng has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Mineral Processing from the Department of Mineral Processing, Central-South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (now Central South University), Changsha, China
• Masters of Engineering in Mineral Processing from the Department of Mineral Engineering, Central-South University, Changsha, China
• Doctorate of Philosophy in Hydrometallurgy from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Australia.

Achievements

Dr Cheng has published more than 70 papers; six of them were selected in the 'Top 25 hottest papers' of Hydrometallurgy.

He has also been awarded:

• CSIRO Minerals Division’s Best Paper for Application of Science, 2006, for the paper ‘Solvent extraction of nickel and cobalt with synergistic systems consisting of carboxylic acid and aliphatic hydroxyoxime’ published in Hydrometallurgy, 84 (2006) 109-117
• CSIRO Minerals Innovation Award in ‘DSX Processes for Nickel and Cobalt Recovery’, 2004
• CSIRO Minerals Innovation Award in ‘Innovative Solvent Extraction Processes’, 2001.

As an internationally recognised researcher, Dr Cheng has received many honours. Recently he has been invited to be a:

• guest Professor of Central South University, China, 2009 
• co-chairman of the Fifth International Hydrometallurgy Conference in China, 2009
• member of the International Committee of the Fifth International Hydrometallurgy Conference in China, 2009
• session chair in the International Solvent Extraction Conference 2008, Tucson, USA.

Read about CSIRO's capabilities in Precious and base metals hydrometallurgy.