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Quartz Ore Beneficiation by Reverse Flotation for Silicon Production

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Abstract

In this work the reverse flotation as beneficiation process for high-purity silica valorization from Draissa quartz deposits (Algeria) is studied as a potential raw material for photovoltaic silicon production and starting charge for crystal growth material for a large wide of applications such laser and scintillation. The samples are investigated by optical microscopy, secondary ion mass spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy. The microscopic investigations detect solid impurities such as alkaline and plagioclase feldspars, micas and iron oxides. The analyzed silica shows well-developed crystals areas, delimited by microcrystalline regions. Impurities are predominantly located in low quartz granulometry (50-100 μm). The XRF results highlight 93.63 wt% SiO2, 0.16 wt%, Fe2O3, 0.171 wt% Cl, 0.15 wt% CaO, 5.74 wt% Al2O3, 0.074 wt% K2O, 0.001 wt% CdO, 0.006 wt% SnO2. However, these results remain insufficient for predestined use of this raw material. A preliminary enrichment using reverse flotation process improves the silica purity up to 99.6% and removes the major impurities, which is suitable intermediate technological product able for silicon production and optical application.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the CEO of Algerian Albaryte Company Mr Ahmed Belhocine to allow us the collection of the samples from the area of interest. We would like to thank also Dr. Ould Hamou Malek for its precious help in the flotation process at Mining Engineering Department of the National Polytechnic School of Algiers. Raman analyses are performed at Ecole Normale Superieure of Lyon (ENS). The Raman facility in Lyon is supported by the “Institut de Science de l’Univers (INSU)”. We are also grateful to Gilles Montagnac for assistance. Cathodoluminescence analyzes are performed at Lithos Center from Bucharest. We thank Izabela Mares for his help. We are grateful to Barbara Mattison for help with the English editing.

Funding

Funding was provided by the General Direction of research and development technologies/Ministry of Higher Education and Research Sciences DGRSDT/MERS (ALGERIA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche de la Technologie des Semi-conducteurs pour l’Energétique, 02 Bd Frantz Fanon, BP 140, Alger, 7Merveilles, Algérie

    Sidali Medjahed, Abdelkrim Kheloufi, Aissa Kefaifi & Fouad Kerkar

  2. Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon -Terre, Planètes, Environnement, Université de Lyon, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Allée d’Italie, 69364, Cedex 07, Lyon, France

    Ema Bobocioiu

  3. CNRS, Institut Lumière Matière, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Kheirreddine Lebbou

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  1. Sidali Medjahed
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  2. Abdelkrim Kheloufi
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  3. Ema Bobocioiu
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Correspondence to Abdelkrim Kheloufi.

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Highlights

• Draissa quartz deposits (Algeria) is studied as a potential raw material for photovoltaic silicon production and crystal growth material

• Solid impurities such as alkaline and plagioclase feldspars, micas and iron oxides are detected

• The reverse flotation process used in three stages as a high efficiency selective process of quartz beneficiation

• The recoveries rate of hematite, mica and feldspar achieve 97 wt%, 99 wt% and 99wt% respectively

• Reverse flotation increases the quartz concentration up to 99.65% SiO2 which is suitable product able for silicon production for photovoltaic application.

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Medjahed, S., Kheloufi, A., Bobocioiu, E. et al. Quartz Ore Beneficiation by Reverse Flotation for Silicon Production. Silicon 14, 87–97 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00790-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00790-x

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