Rare-Earth Occurences in the Pea Ridge Tailings

摘要

Tailings from the Pea Ridge iron mine contain significant amounts of apatite,which has rare-earth element values associated with it. In association with the recovery of rare-earth minerals as a secondary resource, the U.S. Bureau of Mines conducted an investigation on the recoverability of the rare-earth minerals from these tailings. The mill tailings were subjected to a phosphate flotation to separate the apatite from other constituents. More than 70-pct recovery of the rare-earth values was achieved. Intensive ore microscopy studies of the original tailings to the flotation products led to the identification of monazite, xenotime, and rare-earth-enriched apatite as the major rare-earth-bearing minerals in the tailings.