What are the common lithium-rich minerals? Introduction to lithium-rich ore beneficiation process!

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Today, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the demand for lithium at home and abroad is also increasing, resulting in a shortage of lithium resource supply. Lithium-rich ores are the main resource for obtaining lithium, so which ones are lithium-rich ores? What are its mineral processing technology methods? Let’s find out together below!

1. Common types of lithium-rich minerals

Currently, about 35% of the world’s lithium resources come from lithium-rich minerals, and lithium resources are obtained from such lithium minerals. There are three main types: Spodumene, Lepidolite and Lepidolite. Among them, spodumene crystals are often columnar, granular or plate-shaped, mainly found in lithium-rich granitic pegmatites, and have a monoclinic crystal structure; lepidolite belongs to the monoclinic crystal system and is a TOT layered silicate mineral. It is generally a flake or scale-like aggregate, mainly produced in granitic pegmatite, with a rose or light purple color, a continuous layered silicon-oxygen tetrahedral structure, and very complete layered cleavage; A kind of fluorophosphate containing lithium and aluminum. It is produced in granitic pegmatite. It is often produced in the form of dense block aggregates. It belongs to the triclinic crystal system. Aluminum atoms and oxygen atoms form an aluminum-oxygen octahedral structure.

2. Lithium-rich ore beneficiation process

1. Spodumene beneficiation process method

There are two common spodumene beneficiation process methods: flotation method and chemical leaching method.

Flotation method: Flotation method has wide applicability and is widely used in the purification of spodumene with industrial value. However, the flotation agent is one of the important factors affecting the flotation effect of spodumene, so it can be replaced with an efficient and environmentally friendly collector. For example, sodium oleate/tributyl can be used to flotate spodumene from feldspar. Phosphorus chloride, a new type of mixed anion/cation collector, can achieve better flotation separation effect. In addition, adding a small amount of cationic collector dodecylamine hydrochloride (DDA) during flotation can significantly improve the effect of anionic collector sodium oleate in separating spodumene from feldspar.

Chemical leaching method: Chemical leaching is one of the commonly used methods for purifying spodumene, but it requires pre-processing of the ore. activation treatment. Among them, destroying the structure of aluminum silicate is the key to chemical leaching of spodumene to extract lithium. Since spodumene is similar to illite, the Bayer method can be introduced to treat natural α-spodumene. The ore decomposes under alkaline conditions and is added Calcium oxide and increasing temperature can accelerate the decomposition of spodumene, and the lithium leaching rate can be increased to about 93% after optimization.

2. Lepidolite beneficiation process

The main method for lepidolite beneficiation to extract lithium is chemical leaching. For this method, different chemical agents can be used to obtain different leaching rates. , when potassium sulfate is used as the activator, the structure of lepidolite does not change significantly, and the leaching rate of lithium can reach 98.7%; if potassium salt is used as the activator, combined with ball mill grinding, the leaching rate of lepidolite can reach 99.1% . Therefore, it is necessary to choose the appropriate type of activator and the mass ratio to the concentrate. At the same time, the speed of the ball mill, grinding time, reaction temperature and stirring speed are all factors that affect the chemical leaching effect of lepidolite.

3. Lithium phosphate aluminum ore beneficiation process

Because of its special mineral properties, lithium phosphate aluminum ore is mainly completed by flotation. When flotation is used to obtain lithium concentrate When leaching, it needs to be pretreated in a ball mill and leached with concentrated sulfuric acid, which can convert lithium and aluminum into soluble sulfates, extract fluoride and phosphate, and obtain an enriched leachate.

Acidic impurities can be precipitated by adding limestone, lime, monovalent carbonate or hydroxide to remove impurities in the lithium-containing filtrate, and recover lithium as lithium-containing salt products.

The above is an introduction to the three types of lithium-rich ores and each lithium ore beneficiation process method. In actual beneficiation In the factory, due to the different mineralization conditions and ore properties of lithium ores, if similar processes are copied and applied, it is likely to reduce the recovery rate of lithium concentrate and reduce the return on investment. Therefore, the editor recommends that first Ore beneficiation test, through experimental analysis, design a reasonable lithium ore beneficiation process.