Abstract
In this study, mineralogical analysis and beneficiation experiments were conducted using a placer deposit of North Korea, on which limited information was available, to confirm the feasibility of development. Rare earth elements (REEs) have vital applications in modern technology and are growing in importance in the fourth industrial revolution. However, the price of REEs is unstable due to the imbalance between supply and demand, and tremendous efforts are being made to produce REEs sustainably. One of them is the evaluation of new rare earth mines and the verification of their feasibility. As a result of a mineralogical analysis, in this placer deposit, monazite and some amount of xenotime were the main REE-bearing minerals. Besides these minerals, ilmenite and zircon were the target minerals to be concentrated. Using a magnetic separation method at various magnetic intensities, paramagnetic minerals, ilmenite (0.8 T magnetic product), and monazite/xenotime (1.0–1.4 T magnetic product) were recovered selectively. Using a magnetic separation result, the beneficiation process was conducted with additional gravity separation for zircon to produce a valuable mineral concentrate. The process resulted in three kinds of mineral concentrates (ilmenite, REE-bearing mineral, and zircon). The content of ilmenite increased from 32.5% to 90.9%, and the total rare earth oxide (TREO) (%) of the REE-bearing mineral concentrates reached 45.0%. The zircon concentrate, a by-product of this process, had a Zr grade of 42.8%. Consequently, it was possible to produce concentrates by combining relatively simple separation processes compared to the conventional process for rare earth placer deposit and confirmed the possibility of mine development.
Highlights
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of elements belonging to the lanthanide series, which ranges from lanthanum to lutetium; the group contains scandium and yttrium with similar chemical properties [1,2]
The importance of REEs is growing due to their increasing application in modern technology and their consequent role in the fourth industrial revolution
Mainly monazite and ilmenite were considered as target minerals for the beneficiation process, whereas quartz was considered as a main gangue mineral from the feed sample
Summary
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of elements belonging to the lanthanide series, which ranges from lanthanum to lutetium; the group contains scandium and yttrium with similar chemical properties [1,2] Due to their unique properties, REEs are widely used in applications such as magnets, battery alloys, and metal alloys. The importance of REEs is growing due to their increasing application in modern technology and their consequent role in the fourth industrial revolution. Despite this increasing demand, the supply of REEs is not stable due to regionally biased production. In 2009, the export quota and tax restrictions imposed by the Chinese government resulted in an imbalance in the demand and supply, leading to a dramatic increase in REE prices
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