Beneficiation of rare earth elements bearing ancylite

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10618058-B2
Application number	US-201615225690-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2016
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Apr 14, 2020
Grant date	Apr 14, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for recovery of ancylite, a rare earth mineral comprising strontium carbonate, from rare earth ore. In many embodiments, the disclosed methods and systems provide for recovery of greater than 50% of the ancylite from an ancylite containing ore. In many embodiments, the ore is subjected to flotation in the presence of an acid, for example a hydroxamic acid, such as octanohydroxamic acid. The ore may also be subjected to magnetic separation, for example wet high intensity magnetic separation.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of increasing the concentration of a ancylite in an ore sample, the method comprising:
combining the ancylite containing ore sample and a collector comprising a hydroxamic acid;
agitating the ancylite/collector combination;
subjecting the agitated ancylite/collector combination to flotation and floating the ancylite/collector combination to obtain a tailing sink fraction and a concentrated ancylite float fraction;
separating the tailing fraction from the ancylite fraction, and thereby obtaining an ore sample with increased concentration of ancylite.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ore sample has a mesh size less than about 100 mesh.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flotation is performed by passing a gas through the combination.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydroxamic acid is octanohydroxamic acid.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the collector comprises octanohydroxamic acid and potassium ethyl xanthate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collector concentration is between about 0.003 and 0.0001 mol/liter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pH of the ancylite/collector combination is between about 6 and 11.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein strontium nitrate is added to the ancylite/collector combination.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein flotation is performed with solids at between 10% and 40%.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ore sample is subjected to crushing and grinding prior to the combining step.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein, prior to the combining step, separating the ore sample with a wet high intensity magnetic separator into two groups—a predominantly iron-containing ore and a predominantly ancylite-containing ore; wherein the separator has a grooved plate matrix and applies a magnetic field with a current of between 0.1 and 16 amperes.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the separating step is a wet high intensity magnetic separation.

13. A method of increasing the concentration of rare ancylite in an ore sample, the method comprising:
reducing the size of an ancylite containing ore to a particle size of less than about 100 mesh;
passing the particles through a magnetic separator to produce an iron rich sample and an iron reduced sample;
combining the iron reduced sample with a hydroxamic acid collector and one or more additives selected from an ionic compound, a collector, and a frother, wherein the collector includes said hydroxamic acid, to create a slurry;
agitating the slurry;
separating the agitated slurry by flotation into a tailing fraction and a concentrated ancylite float fraction;
collecting the concentrate ancylite fraction to obtain a product ore sample increased concentration of ancylite.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the tailing fraction is re-combined with the one or more additives, agitated, and separated to obtain a second concentrated ancylite fraction.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the hydroxamic acid is octanohydroxamic acid.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more additives include the ionic compound and the ionic compound is strontium nitrate and the frother is AEROFROTH 70.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the ancylite concentration of the concentrated ancylite fraction is between about 3% and about 15%.

Assignees

• Colorado School Of Mines

Inventors

• Anderson Corby G
• Cui Hao

Classifications

• B03D1/012

  containing sulfur · CPC title

• B03D2201/02

  Collectors · CPC title

• B03D2201/007

  Modifying reagents for adjusting pH or conductivity · CPC title

• B03C2201/18

  Magnetic separation whereby the particles are suspended in a liquid · CPC title

• B03D2203/10

  Potassium ores · CPC title