METHOD OF PROCESSING A PHOSPHATE CONCENTRATE OF RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC C22B59/00 C22B3/06 C22B3/24 

FIELD: technological processes.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the treatment of a phosphate concentrate of rare-earth phosphate concentrates (REE) obtained by a complex processing of apatite, and can be used in the chemical industry to produce non-radioactive carbonate or hydroxide concentrates of REE. Processing of the phosphate concentrate of REE is carried out containing impurities of calcium, thorium, aluminum and iron, the concentration of phosphoric acid is 20–38 wt. % at room temperature in the presence of sulfoxide cation exchanger. Mass ratio of the concentrate, acid and sulfoxide cation exchanger is 1:(10–15):(4–6). If necessary, the phosphate concentrate is treated with phosphoric acid in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, the consumption of which is 0.25–0.5 g per gram of cerium in the phosphate concentrate. In the process of dissolving the concentrate, the sulfoxide cation exchanger adsorbs REE and calcium, and phosphorus and thorium react to a resulting pulp. Pulp is separated from the cation exchanger and the REE and calcium are desorbed from the cation exchanger with a solution of ammonium nitrate to obtain a desorbate. Then, the desorbate is neutralized with an ammonium compound to form a REE concentrate.

EFFECT: method provides recovery of 93,7–98,6 % REE to a non-radioactive concentrate at a reduced energy intensity of phosphate concentrate treatment and can be realized with a smaller number of reagents.

1 cl, 5 ex