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Comprehensive utilization of complex rubidium ore resources: Mineral dissociation and selective leaching of rubidium and potassium

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Abstract

Currently, the process of extracting rubidium from ores has attracted a great deal of attention due to the increasing application of rubidium in high-technology field. A novel process for the comprehensive utilization of rubidium ore resources is proposed in this paper. The process consists mainly of mineral dissociation, selective leaching, and desilication. The results showed that the stable silicon—oxygen tetrahedral structure of the rubidium ore was completely disrupted by thermal activation and the mineral was completely dissociated, which was conducive to subsequent selective leaching. Under the optimal conditions, extractions of 98.67% Rb and 96.23% K were obtained by leaching the rubidium ore. Moreover, the addition of a certain amount of activated Al(OH)3 during leaching can effectively inhibit the leaching of silicon. In the meantime, the leach residue was sodalite, which was successfully synthesized to zeolite A by hydrothermal conversion. The proposed process provided a feasible strategy for the green extraction of rubidium and the sustainable utilization of various resources.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1802253 and 52034002), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (No. FRF-TT-19-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Quankuang Zhang, Baozhong Ma, Chengyan Wang, Yongqiang Chen & Wenjuan Zhang

  2. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Quankuang Zhang, Baozhong Ma, Chengyan Wang, Yongqiang Chen & Wenjuan Zhang

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  1. Quankuang Zhang
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  2. Baozhong Ma
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Correspondence to Baozhong Ma or Chengyan Wang.

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Comprehensive utilization of complex rubidium ore resources: Mineral dissociation and selective leaching of rubidium and potassium

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Zhang, Q., Ma, B., Wang, C. et al. Comprehensive utilization of complex rubidium ore resources: Mineral dissociation and selective leaching of rubidium and potassium. Int J Miner Metall Mater 30, 857–867 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-022-2436-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-022-2436-1

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