US Patent Issued to Ecolab USA on Dec. 16 for "Methods and compositions for pre-extractive beneficiation of ores" (Arizona, Illinois, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,497,671, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Ecolab USA Inc. (St. Paul, Minn.).

"Methods and compositions for pre-extractive beneficiation of ores" was invented by Christopher Ryan Greulich (Tucson, Ariz.), Michael Ignazio LaRosa (Palacios, Texas) and Ronald Verne Davis (Geneva, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are methods and compositions for increasing the alumina content of a bauxite ore prior to alumina extraction by an extractive process, such as the Bayer process. By adding a beneficiation agent to an aqueous ore slurry, then applying a gravitational force to separate, or partition, the slurry into a beneficiary ...