Abstract:
The Bayan Obo Iron Mine is a rare large-scale polymetallic deposit in the world, only iron ore and rare earth were utilized for many years. The recovery rate of rare earth in the beneficiation process is low, resulting in a considerable amount of rare earth and fluorite resources contained in the ore body being discharged into the tailings pond alongside the iron tailings. To achieve comprehensive recovery of rare earth and fluorite resources, the research on comprehensive recovery of rare earth and fluorite was carried out with the iron tailings of a concentrator in Bayan Obo. The process flow adopted in the test was rare earth flotation - fluorite preconcentration - fluorite concentration - high intensity magnetic separation. Sodium silicate, SR and 2# oil were used in rare earth flotation. Sodium silicate and SF were used in fluorite preconcentration. Acidified sodium silicate, SY and sodium oleate were used in fluorite concentration. Finally, rare earth concentrate with REO grade of 50.54%, REO recovery of 92.32% and fluorite concentrate with CaF
2 grade of 95.51% and recovery of 50.98% were obtained.