For more than 50 years, most rare earth elements were extracted from carbonatite deposits, which can contain different rare earth phases, but the main extracted minerals are bastnaesite, monazite and xenotime. Many studies focused on the improvement and development of dressing circuits for ores of these minerals. However, in some carbonatite complexes, rare earth deposits are composed partly or mainly of ancylite ores. This type of rare earth ores was very poorly studied in terms of dressability – previous experiments with ancylite ores are rare and not productive enough. Ancylite is the main concentrator of rare earth elements in most carbonatite complexes of the Devonian Kola Alkaline Province (northwest Russia). Dressability of ancylite ore from the Petyayan-Vara carbonatite field in the Vuorijärvi alkaline-ultramafic complex was assessed using the flotation method. The complex is one of the most potential rare earth deposits associated with carbonatites in the Kola Region. Petrographic and mineralogical studies demonstrated the occurrence of abundant iron and barite oxide inclusions in ancylite, which imposes restrictions on physical separation of these three minerals. The study of petrogeochemical and mineralogical composition of fractions formed during mechanical grinding of ores to a size less than 2.0 mm showed that even at this stage of sample preparation, the finest-grained fractions (less than 0.071 mm) were enriched in ancylite (to 19 vol.% or more with a content of 15 vol.% in ore). Three classes of reagents were considered as collectors in flotation experiments: fatty acids, alkyl hydroxamic acids, and amino acid derivatives. The reagent from the amino acid derivative class was highly efficient. The use of such a collector in combination with sodium hexametaphosphate depressant made it possible to obtain a flotation concentrate in an open circuit with total rare earth oxides content 33.4 wt.% at 64.7 % extraction.
Increasing amount of apatite-nepheline ores with complex mineral composition involved in processing, growing content of the associated minerals in ore which are similar in their floatability to apatite lead to the necessity of using highly selective collectors. Non-frothing flotation method gave a comparative assessment of floatability of pure minerals and demonstrated a high selectivity of the action of phosphoric acid esters in relation to apatite. The effect of four reagent modes differing in the number of selective synthetic collectors was studied using the example of flotation of an apatite-nepheline ore sample containing 17.27 % apatite and 40.18 % nepheline. Mineralogical analysis of crushed ore showed that it contained two apatite varieties – coarse-grained free and finer poikilitic as inclusions in rock-forming minerals. Free apatite opens and occurs as open grains even in coarse-grained (+0.16 mm) grades. Poikilitic apatite occurs as intergrowths with different minerals, mainly with nepheline and its alteration products (natrolite, spreustein, sodalite, etc.), and pyroxene. Optical microscopy demonstrated that a growing share of reagent from the phosphoric acid oxyethylated esters class in the composition of the collector mixture allows improving the quality of the produced apatite concentrates by reducing the number of apatite intergrowths with nepheline and pyroxenes in the concentrates. In the concentrate obtained in the most selective reagent mode, the intergrowths are characterized by a 50/50 and higher ratio in favour of apatite. Concentrates of lower quality comprised intergrowths with lower apatite content, to 20/80 or less.
The organization of intrafactory water circulation at mining and processing enterprises, when production wastes and discharges are not sent to an external tailings dump, is an urgent environmental and economic task. Returning even a part of water into the technological process after preliminary treatment will significantly reduce the volume of polluted water discharged into tailings, which will reduce energy costs for waste transportation and the negative environmental impact. One of the wastes sent to the tailings during the ore dressing wastes from the Kovdor deposit to the tailings dump is the discharge of thickeners for the preparation of apatite flotation feed. In order to choose the effective discharge cleaning regime, the authors have evaluated the action of polyacrylamide flocculants. It has been discovered that the apatite and calcite particles interact more effectively with the anionic flocculant. This fact determines its advantage for the treatment of suspended particles. The influence of the residual concentration of a flocculant on the apatite flotation, where a part of the returned treated water goes, has been assessed. Compared to flotation with recycled water, there is a decrease of P2O5 extraction into apatite concentrate of equal quality. In order to obtain the required enrichment indicators on the treated water, it is necessary to adjust the collector (tall oil fatty acids) and depressor (liquid glass) costs.
