Preconcentration of Iron, Rare Earth, and Fluorite from Bayan Obo Ore Using Superconducting Magnetic Separation
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Preconcentration of Iron, Rare Earth, and Fluorite from Bayan Obo Ore Using Superconducting Magnetic Separation Jieliang Wang 1,2 & Peng Zu 1 & Shiwen Yi 1 & Zhao Cao 1,2,3 Received: 29 June 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020 # Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. 2020
Abstract Bayan Obo ore contains mainly bastnaesite, monazite and associated iron, fluorite, calcite, dolomite, barite, and trace amount of columbite. Due to its complex mineral compositions and similar mineral properties, it is difficult to separate and obtain rare earth and fluorite concentrates with high purity by conventional magnetic separation and flotation. In this paper, a stepwise magnetic separation process comprised of wet permanent magnetic separation (PMS), wet electromagnetic separation (EMS), and superconducting magnetic separation (SCMS) was proposed to pre-concentrate iron, rare earth, and fluorite minerals from Bayan Obo ore. The results showed that iron, rare earth, and fluorite preconcentrates with high purity and low impurity content could be achieved, which might be helpful to shorten the technological process and improve the separation efficiency for the subsequent flotation of iron, rare earth, and fluorite minerals. Keywords Bayan Obo ore . Superconducting magnetic separation . Stepwise magnetic separation . Preconcentration
1 Introduction Rare earth elements (REE), comprising of 17 metal elements (15 lanthanides as well as scandium and yttrium) [1], are strategic metals used in a wide range of applications including alloying elements, catalysts, high-strength magnets, phosphors, and polishing compounds [2]. China has abundant reserves of rare earth resources and supplies most of the world’s rare earth demand [3–5]. Bayan Obo mine in China is the world’s largest rare earth mine, accounting for more than 80% of China’s rare earth reserves [4, 6], which plays an important role in the world’s rare earth industry. The mineral composition of Bayan Obo ore contains mainly iron minerals (magnetite and hematite), rare earth minerals (bastnaesite and monazite), Ca, Ba-bearing minerals (fluorite, calcite, dolomite, and barite), and trace amount of columbite [4].
* Zhao Cao [email protected] 1
Key Laboratory of Integrated Exploitation of Bayan Obo Multi-Metal Resources, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China
2
Institute of Mining Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Mineral Processing, Beijing, China
Nowadays, iron, rare earth, and fluorite have been practically recovered from Bayan Obo mine with a conventional magnetic separation–flotation continuous process [4, 7]. In this process, low-intensity magnetic separation and highgradient magnetic separation were used to recover magnetite and hematite from the raw ore, and rare earth and fluorite were recovered from the magnetic separation tailing by sequential flotation. However, rare earth concentrate with only 50% REO grade and fluorite concentrate with only 90% CaF2 grad
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