Minerals bastnasite

Plutonium occurs in natural ores in such small amounts that separation is impractical. The atomic ratio of plutonium to uranium in uranium ores is less than 1 10 however, traces of primordial plutonium-244 have been isolated from the mineral bastnasite (16). One sample contained 1 x 10 g/g ore, corresponding to a plutonium-244 [14119-34-7] Pu, terrestrial abundance of 7 x 10 to 2.8 x 10 g/g of mineral and to <10g of primordial Pu on earth. The content of plutonium-239 [15117 8-3], Pu, in uranium minerals is given in Table 2. 

The main ore in which lanthanum is found is monazite sands, and it is also found in the mineral bastnasite. Monazite sands contain all of the rare-earth elements as well as some elements that are not rare-earths. Its ores are found in South Africa, Australia, Brazil, and India and in California, Florida, and the Carolinas in the United States... 

Dysprosium is the 43rd most abundant element on Earth and ranks ninth in abundance of the rare-earths found in the Earth s crust. It is a metallic element that is usually found as an oxide (disprosia). Like most rare-earths, it is found in the minerals monazite and allanite, which are extracted from river sands of India, Africa, South America, and Australia and the beaches of Florida. It is also found in the mineral bastnasite in California. 

Several other processes also are apphed for the commercial production of europium. In general, all processes are based upon the initial steps involving opening the mineral (bastnasite or monazite) with sulfuric acid or sodium hydroxide, often followed by roasting and solubihzation. In one such process after separation of cerium, the soluble rare earth chloride mixture in HCl solution is pH adjusted and treated with bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphate to obtain europium sesquioxide, EuaOs. 

Gadolinum is found in minerals bastnasite and monazite, always associated with other rare earth metals. It was isolated from yttria in 1880 by the Swiss chemist Marignac, and discovered independently in 1885 by Boisbaudran. It was named in honor of the Swedish chemist Gadolin. Its abundance in the earth s crust is 6.2 mg/kg and concentration in sea water is 0.7 ng/L. 

When lanthanum is produced from the mineral bastnasite, all processes except ore extraction discussed above are the same. The mineral is crushed and concentrated by flotation process. This is followed by treatment with dilute HCl, which converts lanthanum and the rare-earths contained in the mineral into their chlorides. Calcination in air results in rare-earth oxides. 

The principal rare earth-bearing minerals, bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime, are separated from othermin-... 

Neptunium and plutonium are found in nature in minute amounts, formed by neutron reactions in uranium. The Pu/ U ratio is about 3 x 10 Longer-lived Pu, which may be primordial in origin, is present in the rare-earth mineral bastnasite to the extent of 1 part in 10 [62]. The amounts of the naturally occurring plutonium isotopes are so small that for all practical purposes any of the actinide elements other than thorium and uranium encountered in the environment must be taken as man-made. 

Lanthanum is found in rare-earth minerals such as cerite, monazite, allanite, and bastnasite. Monazite and bastnasite are principal ores in which lanthanum occurs in percentages up to 25 percent and 38 percent respectively. Misch metal, used in making lighter flints, contains about 25 percent lanthanum. 

Cerium is the most abundant so-called rare-earths metal. It is found in a number of minerals including ahanite (also known as orthite), monazite, bastnasite, cerhe, and samarskite. Monazite and bastnasite are presently the two more important sources of cerium. 

The element occurs along with other rare-earth elements in a variety of minerals. Monazite and bastnasite are the two principal commercial sources of the rare-earth metals. It was prepared in relatively pure form in 1931. 

Gr. neos, new, and didymos, twin) In 1841, Mosander, extracted from cerite a new rose-colored oxide, which he believed contained a new element. He named the element didymium, as it was an inseparable twin brother of lanthanum. In 1885 von Welsbach separated didymium into two new elemental components, neodymia and praseodymia, by repeated fractionation of ammonium didymium nitrate. While the free metal is in misch metal, long known and used as a pyrophoric alloy for light flints, the element was not isolated in relatively pure form until 1925. Neodymium is present in misch metal to the extent of about 18%. It is present in the minerals monazite and bastnasite, which are principal sources of rare-earth metals. 

Gadolinium is found in several other minerals, including monazite and bastnasite, both of which are commercially important. With the development of ion-exchange and solvent extraction techniques, the availability and prices of gadolinium and the other rare-earth metals have greatly improved. The metal can be prepared by the reduction of the anhydrous fluoride with metallic calcium. 

Whereas certain rocks of igneous origin formed by melting and recrystallization can include minerals enriched in the lanthanides (4), cerium is usually present as a trace element rather than as an essential component. Only a few minerals in which cerium is an essential stmcture-defining component occur in economically significant deposits. Two minerals supply the world s cerium, bastnasite [68909-13-7] LnFCO., and monazite [1306-41 -8] (Ln,Th)PO. ... 

Bastnasite has been identified in various locations on several continents. The largest recognized deposit occurs mixed with monazite and iron ores in a complex mineralization at Baiyunebo in Inner MongoHa, China. The mineral is obtained as a by-product of the iron ore mining. The other commercially viable bastnasite source is the Mountain Pass, California deposit where the average Ln oxide content of the ore is ca 9%. This U.S. deposit is the only resource in the world that is minded solely for its content of cerium and other lanthanides. 

Mischmetal. Mischmetal [62379-61-7] contains, in metallic form, the mixed light lanthanides in the same or slightly modified ratio as occurs in the resource minerals. It is produced by the electrolysis of fused mixed lanthanide chloride prepared from either bastnasite or mona2ite. Although the precise composition of the resulting metal depends on the composition of chloride used, the cerium content of most grades is always close to 50 wt %. 

Rare Earths are produced primarily from three ores, monazite, xenotime, and bastnasite. Monazite is a phosphate mineral of essentially the cerium subgroup metals and thorium -(light rare Earths, Th) P04. The composition of monazite is reasonably constant throughout the world, with almost 50% of its rare Earth content as cerium and most of the remaining 50% as the other members of the cerium subgroup. Xenotime, like monazite, is a rare Earth orthophosphate but contains up to 63% yttrium oxide and also a markedly higher propor-... 

Figure 2.35 (A) Flowsheet for heavy mineral processing in Thailand. (B) Flowsheet for processing bastnasite from mountain pass, California.

In addition to pure oxides, oxidic minerals and ores also can be converted to metal chlorides. Examples include minerals such as zircon, bastnasite, monazite, ilmenite, etc. 

The ores from which rare-earth elements are extracted are monazite, bastnasite, and oxides of yttrium and related fluorocarbonate minerals. These ores are found in South Africa, Australia, South America, India, and in the United States in Cahfomia, Florida, and the Carolinas. Several of the rare-earth elements are also produced as fission by-products during the decay of the radioactive elements uranium and plutonium. The elements of the lanthanide series that have an even atomic number are much more abundant than are those of the series that have an odd atomic number. 

Gadohnium is the 40th most abundant element on Earth and the sixth most abundant of the rare-earths found in the Earths crust (6.4 ppm). Like many other rare-earths, gadolinium is found in monazite river sand in India and Brazil and the beach sand of Florida as well as in bastnasite ores in southern California. Similar to other rare-earths, gadolinium is recovered from its minerals by the ion-exchange process. It is also produced by nuclear fission in atomic reactors designed to produce electricity. 

The element was discovered by Klaproth in 1803 and also in the same year by Berzelius and Hisinger. It is named after the asteroid Ceres. Cerium is found in several minerals often associated with thorium and lanthanum. Some important minerals are monazite, aUanite, cerite, bastnasite, and samarskite. It is the most abundant element among aU rare-earth metals. Its abundance in the earth s crust is estimated to be 66 mg/kg, while its concentration in sea water is approximately 0.0012 microgram/L. 

Europeum generally is produced from two common rare earth minerals monazite, a rare earth-thorium orthophosphate, and bastnasite, a rare earth fluocarbonate. The ores are crushed and subjected to flotation. They are opened by sulfuric acid. Reaction with concentrated sulfuric acid at a temperature between 130 to 170°C converts thorium and the rare earths to their hydrous sulfates. The reaction is exothermic which raises the temperature to 250°C. The product sulfates are treated with cold water which dissolves the thorium and rare earth sulfates. The solution is then treated with sodium sulfate which precipitates rare earth elements by forming rare earth-sodium double salts. The precipitate is heated with sodium hydroxide to obtain rare earth hydrated oxides. Upon heating and drying, cerium hydrated oxide oxidizes to tetravalent ceric(lV) hydroxide. When the hydrated oxides are treated with hydrochloric acid or nitric acid, aU but Ce4+ salt dissolves in the acid. The insoluble Ce4+ salt is removed. 

Holium occurs in rare-earth minerals, such as monazite, gadolinite, xeno-time, euxenite, fergusonite, and bastnasite. Its concentration in monazite is about 0.05%. Its abundance in the earth s crust is 1.3mg/kg. 

Holmium is obtained from monazite, bastnasite and other rare-earth minerals as a by-product during recovery of dysprosium, thulium and other rare-earth metals. The recovery steps in production of all lanthanide elements are very similar. These involve breaking up ores by treatment with hot concentrated sulfuric acid or by caustic fusion separation of rare-earths by ion-exchange processes conversion to halide salts and reduction of the hahde(s) to metal (See Dysprosium, Gadolinium and Erbium). 

Lanthanum is most commonly obtained from the two naturally occurring rate-earth minerals, monazite and bastnasite. Monazite is a rare earth-thorium phosphate that typically contains lanthanum between 15 to 25%. Bastnasite is a rare earth-fluocarbonate-type mineral in which lanthanum content may vary, usually between 8 to 38%. The recovery of the metal from either of its ores involves three major steps (i) extraction of all rare-earths combined together from the non-rare-earth components of the mineral, (ii) separation or isolation of lanthanum from other lanthanide elements present... 

Neodymium is recovered mostly from mineral monazite and bastnasite, the... 

Neodymium oxide is produced from the two principal rare earth minerals, monazite, and bastnasite. The oxide is obtained as an intermediate in the recovery of neodymium metal (See Neodymium). 

The element was discovered in 1794 by the Swedish chemist Gadolin. He named it after the small town Ytterby in Sweden where the mineral containing yttria was found. Mosander in 1843 determined that the yttria consisted of three oxides yttria, erbia, and terbia. Yttrium occurs in all rare earths. It is recovered commercially from monazite sand, which contains about 3% yttrium. It also is found in bastnasite in smaller amounts of about 0.2%. Abundance of yttrium in earth s crust is estimated to be 33 mg/kg. The metal has been detected in moon rocks. 

These materials are available through production of bastnasite at the Mountain Pass Mine in California, of monazite from Australia, India and Brazil, and of monazite as a by-product from the production of tin ores, rutile and various heavy mineral sands. 

The major rare earths mineral producers are listed in Table V along with their claimed yearly capacities. It is seen that the capacity of the Molycorp bastnasite facility exceeds the total world monazite capacity (22,000 MT/year),... 

There are in fact fourteen, and they became known as the rare earths - a misnomer, for some are not particularly rare at all, and they are metals, not earths . A better name is the lanthanides, since they all follow after lanthanum in the Periodic Table. They form an entirely new group, which cannot economically be fitted into Mendeleyev s scheme and is usually depicted as floating freely below it. The lanthanides are, broadly speaking, all rather similar in their chemical behaviour, which is why they were so hard to separate. They are found in minerals such as monazite and bastnasite, the main sources of which are in China and the USA. 

BASTNASITE. A wax-yellow reddish-brown, greasy mineral of the composition (Ce, La) (COi) F, usually found in contact zones or associated with zinc lodes. Sometimes spelled bastnaesite. 

---