Research and Development for Phosphate Recovery and Phosphate Fertilizer Production from Iron Ore Concentration Tails at Sierra Grande, Argentina

摘要

The tails of the iron ore concentration plant at Sierra Grande are the only known commercially available phosphate resources in Argentina (Annually 65,000 tons of P2O5 at rated capacity), where the increase in the use of fertilizers is being promoted. Under a bilateral technical cooperation scheme between the Government of Japan and Argentina, a feasibility study has been undertaken covering the concentration of apatite from the tails and the production of seven type of phosphate fertilizers using the high-Fe phosphate concentrate thus obtained. Two technically viable options were selected for financial and economic analysis.