Geochemical Characteristics of Dolomitic Phosphorite Containing Rare Earth Elements and Its Weathered Ore

Abstract

In order to provide a good theoretical guidance for the development and utilization of weathered phosphorite resources, we investigated the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of primary and weathered phosphorites. The analysis of trace elements showed that the primary ore has hydrothermal sedimentation effect in the later stage, the weathered ore has obvious residual enrichment and the phosphate ore belongs to clastic lithologic phosphate rock. In addition, through leaching test method, it was shown that rare earth elements are present in fluorapatite in the form of isomorphic substitution, and the proportion of rare earth elements adsorbed on clay and other minerals was likely to be between 2% and 3%. The light rare earth elements are relatively enriched in both primary and weathered phosphorite, and Ce and Eu have obvious negative anomalies. The primary phosphorite is a dolomitic phosphorite containing rare earth elements, which are naturally enriched by weathering, and its weathered ore has obvious residual enrichment, while the deposit was characterized by normal marine sedimentation and hydrothermal action.

Raman Spectroscopy Study of Phosphorites Combined with PCA-HCA and OPLS-DA Models

“…Phosphorite is a nonmetallic mineral, which is an important raw material for many kinds of phosphorus products [1][2][3][4][5]. The main types of phosphorite are magmatic apatite, sedimentary metamorphic apatite, and sedimentary rock-type apatite.…”

A Theoretical Study on the Electronic Structure and Floatability of Rare Earth Elements (La, Ce, Nd and Y) Bearing Fluorapatite

“…However, current researches indicated that the REE-bearing phosphates are richer in lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd) and yttrium (Y) [8,9]. For example, for the Zhijin Xinhua rare earth phosphate deposits in western China (the largest rare earth resources reserve of phosphate rock [10]), the average grade of rare earth oxide (REO) is 0.05% to 0.13%, and La, Ce, Nd and Y account for 81.20% of the total REOs [11]. Test data [12,13] showed that REEs replace calcium mainly in the form of isomorphism in the phosphate rock (mainly fluorapatite or carbonate-fluorapatite).…”

Editorial for Special Issue: “Recent Trends in Phosphate Mining, Beneficiation and Related Waste Management”

“…Apatite, allanite, monazite, pyrochlore, and gypsum were identified as the main REE-bearing phases in the different studied samples. Li et al [6] investigated the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of primary and weathered dolomitic phosphorites containing REEs from the Zhijin mining district in Guizhou Province, China. Novel polymer and chemical products were also used to recover REEs from acidic extracts of Florida phosphate mining materials [7].…”