Chemical and mineralogical study on bastnaesite dominated rare earth ores

The process mineralogy characteristics, such as the chemical composition of the ores, the chemical phase of the rare earth, the mineral components and contents, the occurrence states of the main minerals, the disseminated grain size of the rare earth minerals, and the liberation analysis of the rare earth minerals, were studied in detail with the methods of lens-below identification, mineral liberation analyzer (MLA), scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, chemical elements analyses, and the chemical phase analyses. The results show that the main rare earth mineral of the ores was bastnaesite (including parisite), which took up 87% of the total. Bastnaesite (parisite) was mainly disseminated in sparse and scattered forms along the edge or within the intergranular spaces of dolomite, celesite, apatite and quartz. The statistical results of the disseminate grain size indicate that the grain size smaller than 0.038 mm took up 40.47%. The rare-earth miners were featured with tiny grain size, high degree of dispersion, and complicated intergrowth relationship with the disseminated minerals. According for these characteristics, fine milling procedure would be applied to obtain high grade rare earth ore concentrate. Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.