The application of process mineralogy on a tailings sample from a beach placer deposit containing rare earth elements

Abstract

The rare earth elements (REE), which constitute the lanthanide group in the Periodic Table, are a major constituent of many advanced materials, especially in the high technology and green energy sectors. This group of elements is very important in the world economy and modern technology. Resources of REE are globally distributed, but production is largely monopolised by China, which controls approximately 95% of the world's REE Market ( Wübbeke, 2013;Massari and Ruberti, 2013).Early in 2005, China as the leading REE producer decided to limit its REE exports by establishing quotas and banning the sale of some REE outside the country, so as to meet its own domestic requirements (Morrison and Tang, 2012). This resulted in a high global demand and strained supply ( Figure 1). As a result, other countries were faced with the challenge of exploring means of closing the REE demand-and-supply deficit gap created by the change in China's export regulations.The reduction in supply quotas of REE by China led to a drastic increase in global demand for REE, thus creating an opportunity for other countries to look into alternative sources of REE.Japan made plans to extend the search for highly concentrated REE in deep-sea mud of the Pacific Ocean (Gordon, 2011), as well as to recycle old batteries and electronic equipment for their REE contents and to secure alternative supplies of REE from Mongolia (Tabuki, 2010).India planned to resuscitate its REE production from Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), which ceased production in 2004. Other plans to enhance the development of REE supply in India and Vietnam were made by Toyota Motor Corporation in (Montgomery, 2011. This paper outlines the approaches used to investigate an alternative REE resource; a byproduct from an existing titanium recovery operation in South Africa. The process involved the characterization of the REE from the beach placer deposit before processing. The investigation was carried out subsequent to China's decision to implement new export regulations limiting REE exports. Research studies have been conducted globally on REE from carbonatite and placer deposits; in particular in China and the USA, which have the world's largest carbonatite-hosted rare earth reserves. Extensive work has been conducted on the South African carbonatiteThe application of process mineralogy on a tailings sample from a beach placer deposit containing rare earth elements by A. Moila* † , D. Chetty*, and S. Ndlovu † ‡ The rare earth elements (REE) are significant in the context of world economic growth and modern technology. This research is aimed at investigating an alternative source of REE by exploring cost-effective ways of processing REE minerals from an existing beach placer deposit operation, currently mined for titanium. In order to recover REE through economically optimum means, upfront mineralogical investigations are a necessity to reduce the ore processing costs. An approach involving mineralogical characterization and hydrometallurgical test work was therefore chosen. Th...

Methodological principles of the selection of a resource-saving technology while developing water-bearing placer deposits

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Investigation of the influence of flooded bench hydraulic mining parameters on sludge pond formation in the pit residual space

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Method for calculating the groundwater inflow into pit when mining the placer deposits by dredger

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