Thermal Beneficiation of Sra Ouertane (Tunisia) Low-Grade Phosphate Rock
1
Groupe Chimique Tunisien, Gabes 6000, Tunisia
2
École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne, 42023 Saint-Etienne, France
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Proman Management GmbH, Weingartenstrasse 92, 2214 Auersthal, Austria
4
Td Lab Sustainable Mineral Resources, Danube University Krems, Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Straße 30, 3500 Krems, Austria
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Minerals 2020, 10(11), 937; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10110937
Received: 7 August 2020
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Revised: 10 October 2020
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Accepted: 13 October 2020
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Published: 22 October 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phosphorus Life Cycle: From Geological Genesis, Mine Cycle, Chemical Transformation, Use as Fertilizers, and Environmental Fate)
Low-grade phosphate rock from Sra Ouertane (Tunisia) was beneficiated using a thermal treatment consisting of calcination, quenching, and disliming. Untreated phosphate rock samples (group 1), calcined phosphate rock samples (group 2), as well as calcined, quenched, and dislimed (group 3) phosphate rock samples, were investigated using inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). Besides, the particle size distribution of the aforementioned three groups was determined. The proposed thermal treatment successfully increased the P2O5 content of the untreated phosphate rock from 20.01 wt% (group 1) to 24.24 wt% (group 2) after calcination and, finally, 27.24 wt% (group 3) after calcination, quenching, and disliming. It was further found that the concentration of relevant accompanying rare earth elements (Ce, La, Nd, Pr, Sm, and Y) was increased and that the concentration of Cd could be significantly reduced from 30 mg/kg to 14 mg/kg with the proposed treatment. The resulting phosphate concentrate showed relatively high concentrations in metal oxides: Ʃ MgO, Fe2O3, Al2O3 = 3.63 wt% and silica (9.81 wt%) so that it did not meet the merchant grade specifications of a minimum P2O5 content of 30 wt% yet. Removal of these elements could be achieved using additional appropriate separation techniques.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Abbes, N.; Bilal, E.; Hermann, L.; Steiner, G.; Haneklaus, N. Thermal Beneficiation of Sra Ouertane (Tunisia) Low-Grade Phosphate Rock. Minerals 2020, 10, 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10110937
AMA Style
Abbes N, Bilal E, Hermann L, Steiner G, Haneklaus N. Thermal Beneficiation of Sra Ouertane (Tunisia) Low-Grade Phosphate Rock. Minerals. 2020; 10(11):937. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10110937
Chicago/Turabian StyleAbbes, Noureddine, Essaid Bilal, Ludwig Hermann, Gerald Steiner, and Nils Haneklaus. 2020. "Thermal Beneficiation of Sra Ouertane (Tunisia) Low-Grade Phosphate Rock" Minerals 10, no. 11: 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10110937
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