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Ultra-fine gravity separation of rare earth minerals
Norgren, C. Alex
Norgren, C. Alex
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2018
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2019-10-08
Abstract
The use of gravity concentration represents one of the oldest methods of mineral processing in human history, and has been used as well as evolving alongside other methods as some of the earliest means of isolating rare earth minerals during the early 20th century. Advances in gravity separation in the interim period, particularly centrifugal concentrators and more recently the development of the Ultra-Fine (UF) Falcon in the early 2000’s, have recently enabled new avenues for gravity separation at comparatively finer particle sizes than previously considered practical. In regards to the recovery of rare earth minerals, the use of UF Falcons coupled with parallel advancements in flotation chemistry potentially enable a radical improvement in the grade/recovery curve for carbonatite hosted REE deposits within the USA and likely even abroad. On multiple samples tested in this study, the UF Falcon was capable of repeatedly achieving greater than 90% REO recovery with Ca rejections as high as 35% within a single stage of operation. Further improvements to grade are possible with the use of multiple UF Falcons in series, and were able to yield an open circuit concentrate grade of as high as 59% REO and 2.0% Ca from a 50.5% REO and 5.5% Ca sample. When considered in the context of the operation at Mountain Pass, California, the implementation of these combined methodologies yields a projected incremental improvement in pre-tax NPV potentially on the order of 156 million US$ at a discount rate of 12% over a period of 10 years.
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