Physical separation of heavy minerals from 'amang' and the recovery of cerium, gadolinium and europium elements from monazite sample via solvent extraction / Nor Monica Ahmad

Some of the rare earth elements play important roles as phosphors. These phosphorous elements have a wide application in industries. In the present study, the focus is to find the extraction parameter s in order to extract the rare earth elements in heavy minerals from ‘amang’ using solvent extraction method. ‘Amang’ samples were collected from ex-mining area in Kg Gajah, Perak and subjected to the wet gravity separation, drying process and then magnetic separation. Results show that samples from location A21 and A42 contain the highest amount of monazite minerals. For confirmation, those samples were analyzed for its morphology and elemental content using SEMJEDX. Samples from Kg. Gajah were compared with samples from Beh Minerals Sdn Bhd. the 'amang' processing factory near Ipoh, Perak. EDX spectra, both samples show some similarity. Extraction parameters using standard rare earth elements show that the best conditions for both cerium and gadolinium using n-heptane as diluents are at pH 3.2, within 15 minutes equilibrium time and at pH 2.7 within 15 minutes equilibrium time, respectively. On the other hand, europium demonstrates the highest percent of extraction at pH 2.2, within 15 minutes equilibrium time using toluene as diluents. Monazite sample from two different places that is from Kg. Gajah and Beh Minerals Sdn Bhd were subjected to the extraction procedure using the best extraction parameters for the respective individual elements of interests. Result from the duplicate samples show that the percentage of extraction for cerium, gadolinium and europium in monazite samples from both places are between 53% to 92%. Cerium recovered from Kg Gajah and Beh Minerals Sdn Bhd is 82.84 % and 76.41% respectively. Gadolinium recovered from Kg Gajah and Beh Mineral s Sdn Bhd is 91.97 % and 81.25 % respectively. Europium recovered from Kg Gajah and Beh Mineral s Sdn Bhd is 63.52 % and 53 .53 % respectively. Analysis using FTIR spectrometry for the organic phase confirmed the occurrence of ion exchange in the phase.