Existing state and partitioning of rare earth on weathered ores

The existing state and partitioning of rare earth (RE) on weathered ores in Longnan County(LN), Xingfeng County(XF) and Ninghua County(NH) were characterized systematically by standard geological analytical methods. It is found that RE in the weathered rare earth ores exist as four phases: (a) water soluble, (b) ion-exchangeable, (c) colloidal sediment (oxides), (d) minerals, in which mainly as ion exchangeable phase, accounting for nearly 80% of total RE, with about 20% in the form of colloid sediment phase and mineral phase, but very little as aqueous soluble phase. These rare earth partitioning were mainly chosen mid-heavy RE elements, occupying above 60%, but not equal in the four phases. The mid-heavy RE elements were primarily enriched in the ion exchangeable phase up to 40%, while the containment of cerium dioxide is below 2%. The cerium deficiency occurs in the ion exchangeable phase in weathered ore. It results from that the Ce3+ is oxidized into Ce4+ and changes into CeO2. For LN ore, the containment of Y is high in weathered ore because Y-minerals are abundant in original rock.