LIU Yi1, CHEN Ting1, ZHENG Song2, CHEN Wen-xiang1,2, YAN Chun-jie1*, WANG Hong-quan1, ZHOU Sen1, ZHANG Sheng1, MUDENDA Chipenzi1, LU hong-jun1, YANG Xiang1
(1. Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences，Wuhan 430074, China;
2. Guizhou Central Laboratory of Geology and mineral resources , Guiyang 550018, China.)
Abstract: Low-phosphorus phosphorite-type REE ores in the Zhijin deposit, Guizhou Province have been tested by using XRF, ICP, SEM/EDS and FIB-SEM in this study. The results show that the ores contain P2O5 and REE contents of 9.97 % and 899.52 μg/g, respectively, with principal rare earth elements of Y, La, Ce and Nd. Studies on the REE occurrence state show that the REE is dominantly hosted in collophanite in form of isomorphism substitution. The flotation processing of the low-phosphorus phosphorite-type REE ores of the Zhijin deposit has been studied by using the machinery reverse flotation method. The flotation processing conditions, such as the type and dosage of collector, grinding time, sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid dosages, were studied experimentally. The NECP6 number was selected as collector. The results show that the floatation of low-phosphorus phosphorite-type REE ores works highly effective under the following optimization condition at the NECP6 collector dosage of 2.8 kg/t, the ore grinding time of 25 min, the sulfuric acid dosage of 6.5 kg/t, the phosphoric acid dosage of 24 kg/t, and the flotation time of 5 min. The concentrate has P2O5 grade of 20.58%, much higher than that of 10.64% for the raw ore, with the recovery rate of 81.30 %, and the P2O5 grade of 3.69 % for the tailings.
Keywords: low phosphorus layer; REE; occurrence state; reverse flotation; floatation process
ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA Vol. 39, No.4, 2019, page 397-402
