Pyrometallurgical Treatment of Apatite Concentrate with the Objective of Rare Earth Element Recovery: Part II

No Thumbnail Available
Identifiers
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3405
ISSN: 2199-3823
DOI: 10.1007/s40831-017-0148-y
Publication date
2017-12-01
Authors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Citations
Google Scholar
Export
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
Apatite, Ca5(PO4)3F, is a useful raw material for the production of both elemental phosphorus and phosphoric acid, and the mine tailings present at Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) in Kiruna, Sweden, represent a significant potential European source of apatite if upgraded to a concentrate. In the present study, pilot apatite concentrate made from the LKAB tailings has been pyrometallurgically treated using carbon to extract phosphorus without fluxing at temperatures exceeding 1800 °C, with the ultimate objective of recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from the resulting slag/residue phases. Experimental behavior has been modeled using equilibrium thermodynamic predictions performed using HSC®. A process is proposed, and mass–energy balance presented, for the simultaneous production of P4 and CaC2 (ultimately for acetylene, C2H2, and PVC production) from apatite, producing a lime residue significantly enriched in REEs. Possible implications to kiln-based processing of apatite are also discussed.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2017, The Author(s).
Keywords
Apatite , IHP , Improved hard process , Phosphorus , Rare earth , REE , Smelting , Environmental Science (miscellaneous) , Mechanics of Materials , Metals and Alloys
Type
journal article
Citation
Kennedy , M W , Sun , T , Yurramendi , L , Arnout , S , Aune , R E & Tranell , G 2017 , ' Pyrometallurgical Treatment of Apatite Concentrate with the Objective of Rare Earth Element Recovery : Part II ' , Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy , vol. 3 , no. 4 , pp. 846-857 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-017-0148-y