HE Pei-nan¹, HE Ming-you^2*, ZHANG Hai³

(1. School of Air Traffic Management, Civil Aviation Flight University of China, Guanghan 618307, China;
2. Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China;
3. 113 Geological Team, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Liupanshui 553001, China)

Abstract: Taking the Xianglushan REE deposit as a research object, the state of rare earth elements (REE) in ores has been studied in this paper. The rare earth ore samples were tested and analyzed by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron microprobe, and chemical leaching experiment. No independent REE mineral was detected by using the SEM scanning; The elements detected by using the electron microprobe for the in-situ microanalysis of samples include O, Al, Si, Ca, Mg, Fe, Ti, K, Na, S, Cl, C, Cu, Cr, V, and Pt. No rare earth elements were detected by using electron probe. The 10% reagents of (NH4)2SO4, (NH4)Cl, NaCl, and H2SO4 were selected to undertake chemical leaching experiments for 24 hours under conditions of room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The results of leaching experiments show that the rare earth elements in ores can be easily leached out by the 10% reagents, with the leaching rates varying from 11.47% to 24.00%. This indicates that the rare earth elements in ores are mainly in ionic state rather than independent REE minerals.

Keywords: Rare earth elements, state of earth elements, Kaolinite claystone, the Xianglushan REE deposit, Northwest Guizhou

ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA Vol. 39, No.2, 2019, page 231