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The Characterization and Mineralogical Studies of a New Type of Rare Earth Ore in Southwest China to Evaluate Processing Methods

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Abstract

The mineralogical characteristics of a new rare earth ore (SREO) in southwest China were investigated by an advanced mineral identification and characterization system (AMICS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and sequential extraction to provide a basis for increasing rare earth element (REE) reserves and selecting suitable separation and enrichment techniques for these deposits. The light rare earth element (LREE) contents were 500 × 10–6 and 22,574 × 10–6 for iron clay rare earth ore (HFe) and aluminous clay rare earth ore (HAl), respectively, two of which are two types of rare earth ores separated from the SREO. HFe was characterized by high Fe2O3 (33%) and TiO2 (6.1%) contents and a lower content of REE (738 × 10–6), whose REEs were mainly in the isomorphic form and independent minerals, and a small amount in the ion adsorption form. HAl tends to be a mineral rare earth ore with relatively high REE contents (23,284 × 10–6), characterized by high contents of Al2O3 (36%), SiO2 (38%), and P2O5 (2.4%), and its REE are mainly in the form of independent minerals and isomorphic. REE minerals are closely associated with or wrapped in kaolinite and are difficult to completely release. Fine-grained flotation and hydrometallurgy are promising methods to recover REE.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Regional Fund Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 51164004); the Major Applied Basic Research Projects of Guizhou Province, China (Grant Number: JZ [2014] 2005); the Provincial School Joint Fund Project of the Guizhou Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Grant Number: LH [2014] 7656); the Open Experimental Project of Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Number: 2008BAB32B07). The authors are grateful to the State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry of the Institute of Geochemistry for providing the XRD platform, EPMA platform, and ICP-MS platform. We thank Aoshi Analytical Testing Co. (Guangzhou) for the determination of main and trace elements contents. We thank the anonymous reviewers and everyone involved.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Hailan Li

  2. Panzhihua University, Panzhihua, 617000, China

    Hailan Li

  3. Mining College, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Hailan Li, Jie Zhang, Jiangguo Cheng & Fei Xie

  4. Institute of Geology and Mineral Resource Exploration, Non-Ferrous Metals and Nuclear Industry Geological Exploration Bureau of Guizhou, Guiyang, 550005, China

    Daoguo Zeng

  5. College of Civil Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China

    Ruiyong Mao

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  1. Hailan Li
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Correspondence to Jie Zhang.

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Li, H., Zeng, D., Mao, R. et al. The Characterization and Mineralogical Studies of a New Type of Rare Earth Ore in Southwest China to Evaluate Processing Methods. JOM 74, 4798–4805 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-022-05541-4

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