Production of high purity thorium oxide from complex ores leach liquor

Authors : Ayşe ERDEM, Haydar GÜNEŞ, Çiğdem KARA, Hasan AKÇAY, Akan GÜLMEZ, Zümrüt ALKAN

Pages : 1-10

Doi:10.19111/bulletinofmre.709316

View : 31 | Download : 12

Publication Date : 2021-04-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This paper investigates a method for separation and purification of thorium from leach liquors containing rare-earth elements (REE). Iron, which causes problems in the stage of thorium extracting, was first removed by using Adogen 464 solvent. Thorium was extracted with 30% D2EHPA-in kerosene with 1/3 organic/aqueous ratio and stoichiometry of the thorium-D2EHPA complex was calculated as 1:2.6 from slope analysis. After the extraction, LREE and HREE were scrubbed from the extracted organic with 0.25 M H₂SO₄ and 6 M HCl, respectively. Thorium oxalate was precipitated by oxalic acid and calcined at 1,050 °C. It was, after calcination, determined that purity of thorium oxide is 99.23%, based on the ICP-OES analysis.
Keywords : Thorium, Solvent, Extraction, Leach Liquor