Value Recovery from Phosphate Mining and Processing Tailings & Byproducts

Dear Colleagues,

Phosphate ore is not only the source of an essential nutrient (P) for plant growth, but it also contains substantial amounts of elements critical to developing green energy for the future. Uranium in phosphate deposits account for 88% of the unconventional U resources, while rare earth elements (REEs) in phosphate deposits represent hundreds of years of current world demand for these vital elements. Large portions of those valuable elements in phosphate ore end up in several phosphate mining and processing tailings, waste streams, or byproducts, including waste clay from washing, flotation tails, phosphogypsum, phosphoric acid sludge, and process water. A tremendous amount of phosphorus is also tied up with the tailings, particularly with the waste clay, flotation tails and phosphogypsum. Other valuable elements in those streams include Mg, F, I, CaO, and SiO2. This Special Issue welcomes quality research papers on the recovery of one or more of those values from any of the streams described above.

Dr. Patrick Zhang
Prof. Dr. Ru-an Chi
Guest Editors

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