ABSTRACT

Red mud contains large amounts of rare and valuable minerals. Specifically, rare earth elements are present at a concentrated amount in many red mud samples around the world. There is currently only one ore source in the United States that can produce rare earth elements. Pursuing avenues to extract rare earths from red mud is highly advantageous to reduce the amount of red mud being stockpiled, give value to red mud as a waste, and utilize a source for producing rare earths. The iron nugget process effectively increases the concentration of rare earth elements by removing iron. Slag from the iron nugget process upgraded the concentration of rare earth elements by 100%, which makes this a desirable feed for processing. Hydrochloric acid was used to dissolve the rare earth oxides present in the nugget slags, rare earths were then precipitated as a solid using oxalic acid. HCl leach can recover 170 grams of rare earths per ton of red mud nugget slag and oxalic acid precipitation can recover 45 grams per ton.

摘要

赤泥含有大量稀有珍贵的矿物质。具体而言，稀土元素集中存在于世界各地的许多赤泥样品中。目前美国只有一个矿源可以生产稀土元素。寻求从赤泥中提取稀土的途径非常有利于减少赤泥的储存量，使赤泥作为废物具有价值，并利用生产稀土的来源。铁块工艺通过除铁有效地增加了稀土元素的浓度。铁块工艺产生的炉渣将稀土元素的浓度提高了 100%，这使其成为理想的加工原料。盐酸用于溶解熔核渣中存在的稀土氧化物，然后使用草酸将稀土作为固体沉淀。HCl浸出每吨赤泥块渣可回收稀土170克，草酸沉淀每吨可回收45克。