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Aboagye, Patrick Ansah

University of British Columbia

All over the world, the primary economic deposits of rare earths are being exhausted. Finding new sources and methods for the concentration, coupled with a cost-effective extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) is imperative. Alternate and innovative strategies for the extraction and concentration of minerals are being developed continuously. Out of the many physical concentration processes available, the hydrophobic hydrophilic separation (HHS) process has yielded the best result for the pre-concentration of rare earth minerals (REMs). This study explores the possibility of using HHS as a novel process used to physically concentrate REMs of US coals (from 300 ppm to 2 % on ash basis) on BC coals. First, a set of three samples (roof, floor, and parting) were carefully chosen based on the outcome of their correlation coefficient from a study conducted in 2021 to characterize BC coals. A tailings sample (CT) from the plant was also selected to study in this thesis. The results on the roof, floor, and parting showed little to no concentration of REEs. Further investigations were carried out on the CT as most of the roof, floor, and partings would eventually end up as tailings due to processing at the coal preparation plant. The HHS process was affected by pH levels ranging from 7.5 to 9.5, and the results revealed a slight improvement in the final concentrate grade. An increase in collector dosage showed a direct correlation with the increase in concentrate grade, calculated on an ash basis. The reduction of the particle size (P80) of the tailings sample from 20 microns to 8.5 microns also resulted in an increase in the final concentrate grade. The mineralogical examination found that the rare-earth-bearing minerals were monazite, xenotime, and some smaller traces of REEs encapsulated in zircon. The majority of the sample was predominantly composed of quartz and illite/muscovite with minor traces of kaolinite and carbonates with slight traces of monazite and xenotime minerals.

Text

2023-04-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84461

Mining Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/