Investigation of the Solvometallurgical Leaching Performance of Light Rare Earth Elements in Beylikova, Eskisehir Ores

Rare earth elementsRare earth elements (REE) have emerged as a hot topic of discussion in the literature. The reason for increasing interest is the usage of these elements playing a key role in especially green technology. With the increasing REE demand, the search for an alternative, and environmentally friendly extraction method is increasing day by day. At this point, it is seen that the concept of solvometallurgySolvometallurgy has attracted a considerable attention as an alternative method to traditional extraction methods. In this research, REE in Eskisehir-Beylikova Bastnasite ore is investigated using solvometallurgical methods. In the first step of the study, the ore is characterized. After the characterization, calcination was applied at different times, temperatures, and grain size configurations. The calcination experiments were designed, and conducted based on response surface experimental design. REE extraction efficiency was determined as a response, and temperature, time, particle size were identified as experimental parameters. According to results obtained from this design, temperature was found to be the most critical parameter, and calcination at 500, 600, and 700 °C was conducted to find the highest efficient experimental parameters. The experiment conducted at 500 °C yielded the highest extraction efficiency value with light REE solvoleach efficiency as 73.773 wt% while Ce leaching value was found to be 86.648 wt%. It is well understood that the ore can be leached successfully with a newly developed extraction method, solvometallurgySolvometallurgy.