Precipitation, Crystallization & Electrowinning Specialist — GCM-7

Location: Remote — anchored to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
Engagement: Contingent consulting/project-based assignment
Anticipated compensation: $150–$300 per hour or a negotiated fixed price for a defined work package
Travel: International travel may be required
Opportunity: USTDA Global Critical Minerals Project Scoping Services

Position Summary

Axyde Analytics is assembling a multidisciplinary expert cadre for a time-sensitive proposal to the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. If Axyde receives the award, USTDA may request support evaluating prospective international mining, mineral-processing, refining, infrastructure and critical-mineral supply-chain projects.

For GCM-7, Axyde is seeking a senior specialist with substantial, directly evidenced experience recovering purified metal products or chemical compounds from process solutions through:

• Selective precipitation

• Crystallization

• Evaporation and concentration

• Electrowinning

• Electrorefining

• Solid-liquid separation and product finishing

• Mother-liquor, bleed-stream and recycle management

This is a deliberately narrow technical requirement. The specialist may work within a broader team addressing leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, refining, infrastructure, markets, finance and environmental risk, but selection for GCM-7 will be based primarily on demonstrated depth in solution purification and final product recovery.

This is not a general metallurgy, chemical-engineering, wastewater-treatment, laboratory or process-development position. General experience with aqueous processing will not substitute for directly relevant precipitation, crystallization or electrowinning experience.

Potential Responsibilities

Depending on the assignment, the specialist may:

• Evaluate purified process solutions and their suitability for precipitation, crystallization or electrowinning.

• Assess product-form selection based on chemistry, market requirements and downstream processing needs.

• Review selective precipitation sequences, reagent selection, pH control, temperature control and impurity rejection.

• Evaluate nucleation, seeding, supersaturation, crystal growth, residence time and particle-size assumptions.

• Assess evaporation, cooling, reactive and antisolvent crystallization approaches.

• Review filtration, centrifugation, washing, drying, calcination and product-finishing requirements.

• Evaluate electrowinning-cell configuration, electrode materials, current density, current efficiency, voltage and energy consumption.

• Assess electrolyte composition, impurity effects, deposit quality, stripping and cathode-harvesting assumptions.

• Review laboratory, bench, pilot, demonstration and commercial-scale test results.

• Evaluate recovery, purity, yield, morphology, moisture, particle size and customer-specification assumptions.

• Review mass balances, solution inventories, mother-liquor recycle, bleed streams, reagent consumption and water demand.

• Assess scaling, fouling, corrosion, entrainment, occlusion and product-contamination risks.

• Evaluate equipment selection, materials of construction, utilities, process controls and operating assumptions.

• Identify test-work gaps, scale-up risks and conditions for credible commercial advancement.

• Contribute to scopes of work, terms of reference, budgets, schedules, test programs and technical-risk registers.

• Prepare or independently review concise, decision-grade technical findings and recommendations.

• Participate in remote meetings, stakeholder discussions and international site visits when required.

Required Specialized Experience

Applicants must demonstrate meaningful experience in one or more of the following:

• Selective precipitation of metals or critical-mineral compounds.

• Hydroxide, sulfide, carbonate, oxalate, phosphate or other controlled precipitation.

• Industrial crystallization of battery, specialty-chemical or refined-metal products.

• Production of lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, zinc, rare-earth or comparable products from solution.

• Electrowinning or electrorefining of metals.

• Product-purity and morphology control.

• Integration of precipitation or crystallization with upstream solvent extraction, ion exchange or leaching.

• Mother-liquor, recycle and impurity-management circuit design.

• Pilot-plant design, execution, interpretation or scale-up.

• Commercial plant commissioning, troubleshooting or process optimization.

• Independent technical review of product-recovery technologies, flowsheets or investment claims.

Experience limited to bulk neutralization, wastewater precipitation or laboratory chemistry is not sufficient unless the applicant demonstrates direct relevance to controlled product recovery and saleable product quality.

Applicants must distinguish their personal technical contributions from the work performed by the broader project or organization.

Résumé Evidence Required

DO NOT SUBMIT A GENERAL RÉSUMÉ.

The submitted résumé must clearly identify:

• At least two directly relevant precipitation, crystallization, electrowinning or electrorefining projects.

• The feed-solution chemistry and target products.

• The principal impurities and required product specifications.

• The specific recovery mechanism, reagents, equipment or cell configuration used.

• The applicant’s personal role and technical responsibility.

• The scale of the work: laboratory, bench, pilot, demonstration or commercial.

• Relevant operating parameters, control strategies and scale-up considerations.

• Technical reports, flowsheets, models, designs, reviews or recommendations personally produced.

• Measurable outcomes such as recovery, purity, yield, current efficiency, energy consumption, crystal size, morphology or product acceptance, where available.

A résumé that merely lists hydrometallurgy, chemical processing, electrochemistry, wastewater treatment or laboratory analysis without substantiating controlled product-recovery experience will not be advanced.

Breadth is not rewarded for GCM-7 unless the required precipitation, crystallization or electrowinning depth is first established.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in chemical engineering, hydrometallurgy, extractive metallurgy, electrochemistry, chemistry or a closely related discipline.

• Professional Engineer or comparable technical credential.

• Experience taking product-recovery processes from laboratory testing through pilot, demonstration or commercial operation.

• Experience producing battery-grade, high-purity or customer-qualified materials.

• Familiarity with upstream solution-purification operations and downstream product finishing.

• Experience reviewing process mass balances, energy balances, capital costs and operating costs.

• Experience evaluating projects in emerging markets.

• Experience preparing independent technical reviews, feasibility-study inputs or lender/investor due diligence.

• Experience preparing English-language reports for government, financial or executive decision-makers.

Eligibility and Availability

Applicants must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or a non-U.S. citizen lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States.

• Be potentially available to begin supporting an authorized assignment within approximately 20 days, subject to final scheduling.

• Be willing and able to travel internationally when an assignment requires it.

• Identify any country, customer, travel, employment, confidentiality, intellectual-property or conflict-of-interest restrictions.

• Be able to perform without using or disclosing proprietary information belonging to another employer or client.

• Authorize Axyde to tailor and reformat the submitted résumé without materially changing the applicant’s qualifications.

Contingent Nature of the Opportunity

This announcement supports proposal and contingent-workforce planning. It does not guarantee employment, contract award, minimum hours or a specific assignment. Any engagement will remain subject to contract award, assignment requirements, final role alignment, eligibility, availability, mutually acceptable compensation and execution of appropriate engagement documentation.

Application Instructions

Submit a résumé specifically tailored to precipitation, crystallization, electrowinning or electrorefining. Include a short statement identifying:

1. Your strongest product-recovery subspecialty.

2. The metals, compounds and solution chemistries with which you have worked.

3. Two directly relevant projects and your personal technical contribution.

4. The testing or operating scale achieved.

5. Your current location.

6. Your U.S.-citizen or lawful-permanent-resident status.

7. Your international-travel availability.

8. Your anticipated hourly rate or fixed-work-package preference.

Applicants who cannot demonstrate direct depth in controlled precipitation, industrial crystallization, electrowinning or electrorefining should not apply to GCM-7.