Recovery of fluorine from bastnasite as synthetic cryolite by-product

► A novel process was developed to recover F from bastnasite as cryolite by-product. ► Al3+ was used as F coordination reagent to scrub it from the loaded organic phase. ► The aluminum fluoride complexes solution was subjected to produce cryolite. ► Pilot tests for fluorine recovery from bastnasite as cryolite were carried out.