Recovery of Rare Earth Element-Bearing Placer Minerals

This article discusses the process flow chart for the recovery of the rare earthbearing minerals monazite and zircon. The results of this study show that 97.9% monazite with 0.006% yield and 61.2% recovery can be achieved from a feed sample containing 0.0096% monazite by using spiral, electrostatic and magnetic separators followed by flotation. When zircon is subjected to study the process mineralogy, it is observed that a zircon grade in the feed sample containing 0.028% zircon can be upgraded to a zircon grade of 98.7% at the yield of 0.006% and the recovery of 21.5%.