Enrichment of yttrium from rare earth concentrate by ammonium carbonate leaching and peroxide precipitation

The rare earth elements (REE) solubility with ammonium carbonate vary progressively from element to element, the heavy rare earth elements (HRE) being more soluble than the light rare earth elements (LRE). Their solubility is function of the carbonate concentration and the kind of carbonate as sodium, potassium and ammonium. In this work, it is explored this ability of the carbonate for the dissolution of the REE and an easy separation of yttrium was achieved using the precipitation of the peroxide from complex yttrium carbonate. For this work is used a REE concentrate containing (%) Y2O3 2.4, Dy2O3 0.6, Gd2O3 2.7, CeO2 2.5, Nd2O3 33.2, La2O3 40.3, Sm2O3 4.1 and Pr6O11 7.5. The mentioned concentrate was produced industrially from the chemical treatment of monazite sand by NUCLEMON in São Paulo. The yttrium concentrate was treated with 200 g L−1 ammonium carbonate during 10 and 30 min at room temperature. The experiments indicated that a single leaching operation was sufficient to get a rich yttrium solution with about 60.3% Y2O3. In a second step, this yttrium solution was treated with an excess of hydrogen peroxide (130 volumes), cerium, praseodymium and neodymium peroxides being completely precipitated and separated from yttrium. Yttrium was recovered from the carbonate solution as the oxalate and finally as oxide. The final product is an 81% Y2O3. This separation envisages an industrial application. The work discussed the solubility of the REE using ammonium carbonate and the subsequent precipitation of the correspondent peroxides.