Upgrading of a rare earth phosphate concentrate within the nitrophosphate process

Abstract In the nitrophosphate process of fertilizer production, rare earth elements (REE) can be recovered as a REE phosphate concentrate. In this process, after digestion of apatite in concentrated nitric acid, Ca(NO 3 ) 2 .4H 2 O is first separated by cooling crystallization and then the REE are precipitated in phosphate form by a partial neutralization step using ammonia. The obtained REE phosphate concentrate is contaminated by mainly calcium and iron, and the main solid phases are CaHPO 4 .2H 2 O, FePO 4 .2H 2 O and REEPO 4 .nH 2 O. In this study, a process to obtain a concentrate more enriched with REE with low concentration of calcium and iron and free of phosphorous is developed. In the developed process, enrichment and dephosphorization of the rare earth phosphate concentrate has been achieved by selective dissolution and re-precipitation of the REE as a sodium REE double sulfate salt. It is shown that by selective dissolution of the REE concentrate in nitric acid at a pH of 2.4, most of the calcium and phosphorus are dissolved, and a solid phase more enriched in REE is obtained. Thereafter, the REE phosphate concentrate is first dissolved in a mixture of sulfuric-phosphoric acid and then the REE are reprecipitated as NaREE(SO 4 ) 2 .H 2 O by addition of a sodium salt. More than 95% of the Ca, Fe and P are removed and a REE concentrate containing almost 30 mass% total REE is obtained.