Wet process can prepare many metals and compounds. Hydrometallurgy plays a very important role in industries such as zinc, aluminum, copper and uranium. In industrial production,slurry electrolysis is usually used to convert useful metals into liquid phase.

Hydrometallurgical process is generally considered to include four major processes: pretreatment, leaching, solid-liquid separation and separation extraction. The leaching process is to use chemical agents to convert minerals or useful components in minerals into soluble compounds, thereby obtaining a solution containing metals, thereby achieving the separation of useful components and impurity components. At present, according to the different leaching agents and leaching conditions, the leaching methods in the world mainly include hot acid direct leaching, pressure leaching, bacterial leaching, slurry electrolysis and other methods.

Slurry electrolysis is a process that combines ore leaching-partial leaching solution purification-electrolytic deposition and other processes in one device, making full use of the anodic oxidation reaction in the electrolytic deposition process to leach useful elements in the ore, and adding the ore to the electrolytic cell to achieve direct extraction of metals.

The ground ore is pulped and added to the anode area of the electrolytic cell. Appropriate electrolytes are selected for different minerals, and a permeable diaphragm is used to separate the anode area and the cathode area. The metal minerals in the anode area are oxidized and leached, and the metal ions flow into the cathode area through the diaphragm and precipitate at the cathode. The electrolyzed slurry is separated by liquid-solid separation and then sent back to the electrolytic cell for recycling.

Based on the concept of "sustainable development", metallurgical scholars have been thinking about whether it is possible to use the anode reaction in the electrolytic deposition process to oxidize and leach sulfide ores, and replace the high-energy hydrolysis reaction with a new anode reaction. This is the starting point for studying the new metallurgical method of slurry electrolysis.

The slurry electrolysis process has the characteristics of short process, low energy consumption, high metal separation efficiency, and environmental friendliness.