Resources Recycling ISSN:2765-3439(Print) 2765-3447(Online) 자원리싸이클링

In this study, rare earth elements (REE) leaching from a refractory REE ore containing goethite as a major gangue mineral was conducted, introducing a two-stage method of chemical decomposition-acid leaching. At the chemical decomposition step, using one of alkaline agent, NaOH, the ore was decomposed, changing NaOH concentration from 20 to 50 wt% at 10% (w/w) of pulp density and the maximum temperature achieved without boiling at each NaOH concentration. With increasing NaOH concentration, light REE (Ce, La and Nd) and iron were concentrated in the solid phase which is the decomposed product, while aluminum (Al) and phosphorus (P) were removed to the liquid phase, and their concentrations in the solid phase were down to 0.96 and 0.17%, respectively. In addition, through XRD analysis, it was found that the crystallinity of goethite was considerably decreased. At the acid leaching step, the product decomposed by 50 wt% NaOH was leached at 3.0 M HCl and 80 °C for 3 hr, then the REE leaching efficiency was above 94% (Ce 80%), and the leaching efficiencies of Al and P were decreased to 12 and 0%, respectively. Therefore, in terms of both REE leaching efficiency and impurity removal, those decomposition and leaching conditions were chosen as optimum processing methods of the investigated material. In terms of REE leaching mechanism, because REE and iron leaching efficiencies showed the positive correlation each other, so it can be concluded that decreasing crystallinity of goethite affect the improvement of REE leaching.