Role of minerals properties on leaching process of weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore

Granite belonged to intrusive rock and volcanic was extrusive rock. There may be many differences in their degree of weathering and mineral chemical composition. The present study investigated the minerals properties and the leaching mechanism of the granitic weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore from Longnan Rare Earth Mine area (LN ores) and volcanic weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore from Liutang Rare Earth Mine area (LT ores). The X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to characterize the phase of rare earth ores. The particle size distributions and main composition of the ore were also presented in this paper. The leaching mechanisms of two kinds of rare earth ores were analyzed with different kinetics models and could be described by the shrinking-core model. They were all inner diffusion-controlled leaching processes. The leaching equation of the kinetics of the LN ores could be expressed as: 1-23ηLN-(1-ηLN)2/3=0.106r0-0.377e-1.096×1048.314Tt, leaching equation of kinetics of LT ores was 1-23ηLN-(1-ηLN)2/3=8.33×10-3r0-0.411e-4.640×1038.314Tt. The rare earth leaching rate of LT ores was always lower in the same condition, and it would need more time and more (NH4)2SO4 consumption to achieve the same rare earth leaching efficiency, which would lead to more serious ammonia-nitrogen pollution. Therefore, magnesium salt was proposed as the leaching agent to eliminate ammonia-nitrogen pollution and further studies would be taken in the future.

Schematic plot of the forming process of rock 1. Intrusive rock-protolith of granitic weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth ore; 2. Extrusive rock-protolith of volcanic weathered crust elution-deposited rare earth oreFigure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide