Browsing by Author "Madushanka, RS"

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    Extraction of rare earths from monazite in Pulmoddai deposit
    (Department of Earth Resources Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2021-12) Witharana, WPWS; Prabath, DHL; Madushanka, RS; Rohitha, LPS; Dissanayake, DMDOK; Dissanayake, DMDOK; Jayawardena, CL
    Rear earth elements (REEs) have considerable demand in the world and higher market value due to various applications, emerging economies, and continuous depletion of rare earth (RE) metals. Monazite is a perfect source for REEs (61%) and consists of RE and Thorium Phosphate. The Phosphate component was removed by alkaline leaching using NaOH (80 W/V%) at 1800° C for 4 hours at 500 rpm. Thorium was removed by acid leaching using (60 W/V%) HCl at 90° C for 1hour at 500 rpm and 15% pulp density. The solvent extraction method was carried out to separate and purify RE-Oxides from other impurities. 50% Tributyl phosphate (TBP) in kerosene was used as an organic phase with available facilities, and an experiment was done for phase ratio 1 and phase ratio 2, for 3, 6, and 12 minutes of contact time. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis was done for elemental analysis. Most abundant REEs in Monazite were Cerium (39%), Lanthanum (20%), Neodymium (12%) and Praseodymium (4%). The main objective of this research was to identify an industrial-level efficient method for separating and purifying RE from Monazite. Economically viable industrial level extraction of REEs was obtained when the phase ratio equals one and 3 minutes contact time.