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Flowsheet Development of Two Distinct Rare Earth Minerals
Bearing Heavy Mineral Sand Ores
Etienne Raffaillac, Rudolf MacHunter
Mineral Technologies
ABSTRACT: The industrial, economic, and political importance of rare earth elements (REE) continue to
increase globally, since they are vital for many important electronic products and critical to support transition
to green energy technologies. A common source of the rare earth elements includes the minerals monazite and
xenotime, which are frequently found in detrital heavy mineral sand resources.
This paper presents the results of the mineralogical and metallurgical test work of two distinct REE-bearing
heavy minerals sand ores. The diverse range of characteristics affects their amenability to beneficiation tech-
niques and the impact of the unique properties of each ore type on the resultant beneficiation flowsheets devel-
oped considering these differences are examined.
In particular, the efficacy of froth flotation is compared in parallel to conventional dry mineral separation tech-
niques for the secondary upgrade circuits.
Keywords: Rare earth minerals, metallurgical characterization, processing techniques synergies
INTRODUCTION
Rare earth elements (REE) comprise the 15 lanthanides
elements in the periodic table with atomic numbers rang-
ing from 57 to 71. Because of their similar physical and
chemical characteristics, scandium (atomic number 21)
and yttrium (atomic number 39) are often included with
the lanthanides.
Although often occurring together, rare earth elements
are further divided into two groups. The ‘light’ rare earth
includes elements with atomic numbers 57 through 63
(lanthanum to europium) and the ‘heavy’ rare earth are
elements with atomic number from 64 to 71 (gadolinium
to lutetium). Yttrium has similar properties to the heavy
group (see Table 1).
Rare earth metals have a wide range of uses such as
wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, or electric vehicles
are therefore and crucial role in clean energy applications.
Monazite and xenotime naturally contain elevated pro-
portions REE and represent a resource base to produce rare
earths. They occur globally in placer deposits along with
other heavy mineral sands of economic importance like zir-
con, ilmenite and rutile.
After mining, mineral sands and therefore, by exten-
sion, monazite and xenotime beneficiation is often com-
pleted by a combination of size classification, gravity
concentration and upgrade by wet or dry magnetic separa-
tion, as well as electrostatics. In addition to the complexity
of process circuits required to achieve acceptable grade and
recoveries, conventional mineral separation plants must
Flowsheet Development of Two Distinct Rare Earth Minerals
Bearing Heavy Mineral Sand Ores
Etienne Raffaillac, Rudolf MacHunter
Mineral Technologies
ABSTRACT: The industrial, economic, and political importance of rare earth elements (REE) continue to
increase globally, since they are vital for many important electronic products and critical to support transition
to green energy technologies. A common source of the rare earth elements includes the minerals monazite and
xenotime, which are frequently found in detrital heavy mineral sand resources.
This paper presents the results of the mineralogical and metallurgical test work of two distinct REE-bearing
heavy minerals sand ores. The diverse range of characteristics affects their amenability to beneficiation tech-
niques and the impact of the unique properties of each ore type on the resultant beneficiation flowsheets devel-
oped considering these differences are examined.
In particular, the efficacy of froth flotation is compared in parallel to conventional dry mineral separation tech-
niques for the secondary upgrade circuits.
Keywords: Rare earth minerals, metallurgical characterization, processing techniques synergies
INTRODUCTION
Rare earth elements (REE) comprise the 15 lanthanides
elements in the periodic table with atomic numbers rang-
ing from 57 to 71. Because of their similar physical and
chemical characteristics, scandium (atomic number 21)
and yttrium (atomic number 39) are often included with
the lanthanides.
Although often occurring together, rare earth elements
are further divided into two groups. The ‘light’ rare earth
includes elements with atomic numbers 57 through 63
(lanthanum to europium) and the ‘heavy’ rare earth are
elements with atomic number from 64 to 71 (gadolinium
to lutetium). Yttrium has similar properties to the heavy
group (see Table 1).
Rare earth metals have a wide range of uses such as
wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, or electric vehicles
are therefore and crucial role in clean energy applications.
Monazite and xenotime naturally contain elevated pro-
portions REE and represent a resource base to produce rare
earths. They occur globally in placer deposits along with
other heavy mineral sands of economic importance like zir-
con, ilmenite and rutile.
After mining, mineral sands and therefore, by exten-
sion, monazite and xenotime beneficiation is often com-
pleted by a combination of size classification, gravity
concentration and upgrade by wet or dry magnetic separa-
tion, as well as electrostatics. In addition to the complexity
of process circuits required to achieve acceptable grade and
recoveries, conventional mineral separation plants must