Ore of the Tomtor rare-earth deposit for its industrial processing

One of the most promising rare-earth metal (REE) deposits is the Tomtor deposit. The purpose of the work was to study the technological sample of the Tomtor ore deposit to determine the methods of its industrial processing. To achieve this target, studies were conducted on the particle size distribution, mineral and chemical composition of the ore. It was established that the ore of the Tomtor deposit is a fine-disperse material, the particles of which are represented by polymineral aggregates of microcrystals smaller than micrometer. The ore belongs to pyrochlore-monazite-crandallite variety of phosphate-rare-metal ores and is rich in the content of minerals of rare-earth elements. Due to the fine-disperse and high complexity, the ore under this studying cannot be enriched by the traditional methods. An option for processing ore using combined pyro- and hydrometallurgy methods is proposed. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.