Process mineralogy of Weishan rare earth ore by MLA

Mineral liberation analyser(MLA) was applied to quantitatively analyze the rare earth ore from Weishan in Shandong. Mineralogy parameters, such as mineral composition, occurrence states of rare earth elements(REEs) and valuable elements, mineral embedded grain size distribution, mineral association and liberation, are obtained. Results show that the contents of REEs and other valuable elements mainly contained in the ore were La 1.02 wt%, Ce 4.29 wt%, Pr 0.34 wt%, Nd 0.84 wt%, Sr 3.4 wt%and Ba 26.53 wt%, respectively. The REEs mainly occur in bastnaesite and carbocernaite in the form of independent mineral and the contents of bastnaesite and carbocernaite in the ore were 5.96 wt% and12.30 wt%, respectively. 67.34% of strontium occurs in carbocernaite and the rest occurs in celestobarite and strontianite mineral. 92.71% of barium occurs in barite. Liberation of main rare-earth minerals such as bastnaesite and carbocernaite is more than 80% when the grinding fineness is78.42% passing 74 μm. The research results could be employed to provide detailed basic theoretical data for further improvement of the beneficiation process flow and the processing index of rare earth ore, the recycling of other valuable minerals and the comprehensive utilization of tailings.

Enhancing mineral liberation of a Canadian rare earth are with microwave pretreatment

Liberation. as an attribute of mineralogy characteristic. whose impacts on finely disseminated Canadian rare earth ore was studied with microwave pretreatment. Samples of a light rare earth ore along with mostly ankerite and biotite as dominant gangue minerals as well as bastnaesite, strontianite and goethite as dominated minerals were exposed to further comminution by ball mill and microwave pretreatment fragmentation. Mineralogical characteristics were analyzed by using a mineral liberation analyzer（MLA）.The results indicated that tight association mutually penetrates among dominated minerals in the range size of -300 ＋ 212 μm and 212 ＋ 150 μm and gangue minerals in the form of adjacent type. fine vein type. shell type and packing type. Temperature in the ore samples pre-treated by microwave can rapidly rise to 250 ℃ with microwave power of 0-1.5 kW and microwave time of 0-2 min. Applying the microwave pretreatment merely reduces the hardness of the ore causing the fracture of rare earth ore, but this does not transform or change the original mineralogy characteristics of the ore samples. On the basis of above study. the liberation value of bastnaesite, strontianite and goethite with microwave pretreatment is greater than with conventional comminution when the liberation class is above 75%. The distribution of particle size of rare earth ore samples is better with microwave pretreatment than with conventional comminution for particle size of 7.4 × 10^（-5） m. With microwave pretreatment, the theoretical grade-recovery of bastnaesite. strontianite and goethite in the rare earth ore attains better results than with conventional comminution at a given grade.