Abstract
Hoidas Lake lies in the Northern Rae Geological Province, in the general vicinity of many of Saskatchewan's large uranium mines. The mineralogy of the Hoidas Lake rare-earth deposit differs from most other such deposits in that it is hosted in equal abundance in veins containing apatite and allanite mineral groups. Hoidas Lake also differs from other deposits in that it contains a significant amount of heavy rare-earth elements, such as dysprosium. This abundance of heavy Rare Earth Elements (REE’s) is significant, as there is a growing demand for the heavier rare earths in high-tech manufacturing (such as the use of dysprosium in the manufacturing of hybrid car components). Recently, metallurgical testing was performed on a Hoidas Lake REE deposit composite. These investigations included characterization, flotation testing, heavy media separation, magnetic separation testing, whole ore leaching studies, bond work index grindability testing, and relative abrasion index testing. This paper summarizes this research effort.
Highlights
75 kilograms of Hoidas Lake material was crushed and blended into a composite
While extensive testing has settled on a crushing, screening, gravity and magnetic separation process, this study sets out to investigate an alternative flowsheet based on flotation and wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) to effectively beneficiate the rare earth oxide (REO) content of the Bear Lodge ore
For fatty acid/petroleum sulfonate, flotation results were like previous composite testing. 70.3% of the cerium reported to the concentrates while previous work indicated 67.3% recovery. 83.35% of phosphorous reported to concentrates
Summary
75 kilograms of Hoidas Lake material was crushed and blended into a composite. Flotation separation of bastnaesite from carbonate gangue has proved to be an exceedingly difficult task It remains the dominant unit operation for beneficiation of rare earth element-bearing minerals. The surface chemistry and micro flotation behaviors were discussed based on both lab observations and a literature review Because of their selective depressing power, sodium silicate and lignosulfonate have been widely used as depressants in rare-earth mineral flotation to separate minerals from specific types of gangue minerals. While extensive testing has settled on a crushing, screening, gravity and magnetic separation process, this study sets out to investigate an alternative flowsheet based on flotation and wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) to effectively beneficiate the rare earth oxide (REO) content of the Bear Lodge ore.
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