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Full-Text Articles in Mining Engineering

An Acid Baking Approach To Enhance Heavy Rare Earth Recovery From Bituminous Coal-Based Sources, Ahmad Nawab, Xinbo Yang, Rick Q. Honaker Jun 2022

An Acid Baking Approach To Enhance Heavy Rare Earth Recovery From Bituminous Coal-Based Sources, Ahmad Nawab, Xinbo Yang, Rick Q. Honaker

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

The recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from secondary resources, particularly coal-based materials, has recently received attention due to supply and demand imbalance. Research reported to date indicates that a high REE recovery can be realized when treating bituminous coal sources using strong acid solutions of approximately100 g/L or higher. This study introduces an approach to enhance the total rare earth recovery (TREE), especially for heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), from these coal sources at significantly lower acid concentrations. Based on the presence of REE minerals like monazite and xenotime, a detailed investigation was undertaken to quantify three pre-leach treatment …


Application Of Eh-Ph Diagrams On Acid Leaching Systems For The Recovery Of Rees From Bastnaesite, Monazite And Xenotime, Peijia Lin, Xinbo Yang, Joshua M. Werner, Rick Q. Honaker Apr 2021

Application Of Eh-Ph Diagrams On Acid Leaching Systems For The Recovery Of Rees From Bastnaesite, Monazite And Xenotime, Peijia Lin, Xinbo Yang, Joshua M. Werner, Rick Q. Honaker

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

Bastnaesite, monazite and xenotime are rare earth minerals (REMs) that are typical sources for rare earth elements (REEs). To advance the understanding of their leaching and precipitation behavior in different hydrometallurgical processes, Eh-pH diagrams were constructed and modified using the HSC 9.9 software. The aqueous stability of rare earth elements in H2O and acid leaching systems, i.e., the REE-Ligands-H2O systems, were depicted and studied based on the Eh-pH diagrams. This study considers the most relevant lixiviants, their resulting equilibrium states and the importance in the hydrometallurgical recovery of rare earth elements (REMs). A literature review was …


Geochemistry, Petrology, And Palynology Of The Princess No. 3 Coal, Greenup County, Kentucky, Madison M. Hood, Cortland F. Eble, James C. Hower, Shifeng Dai Dec 2020

Geochemistry, Petrology, And Palynology Of The Princess No. 3 Coal, Greenup County, Kentucky, Madison M. Hood, Cortland F. Eble, James C. Hower, Shifeng Dai

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

The high volatile C bituminous-rank, Bolsovian-age Princess No. 3 coal, a correlative of the heavily-mined Hazard No. 7 coal and the Peach Orchard and Coalburg Lower Split coals, was investigated three sites at a mine in Greenup County, Kentucky. The coal exhibits a “dulling upwards” trend, with decreasing vitrinite and a greater tendency towards dull clarain and bone lithotypes towards the top of the coal. The relatively vitrinite-rich basal lithotype is marked by a dominance of lycopod tree spores. The palynology transitions upwards to a middle parting co-dominated by tree fern and small lycopod spores and an upper bench dominated …


Rare Earth-Bearing Particles In Fly Ash Carbons: Examples From The Combustion Of Eastern Kentucky Coals, James C. Hower, John G. Groppo Jr. Sep 2020

Rare Earth-Bearing Particles In Fly Ash Carbons: Examples From The Combustion Of Eastern Kentucky Coals, James C. Hower, John G. Groppo Jr.

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty and Staff Publications

Graphitic carbons from the combustion of bituminous coals and, perhaps, other coal ranks, tend to capture iron and a number of hazardous elements, including As, Hg, and Se. Rare earth elements in fly ashes occur in minerals, such as monazite, xenotime, and davidite. They also occur in sub-nm particles, probably in a mineral form, within the Al–Si glass on the investigated fly ashes. Just as graphitic carbons can capture Fe and hazardous elements, the carbons surrounding the fly ash glass and magnetic particles captures or encapsulates a broad suite of rare earth elements.


Leaching Kinetics Of Rare Earth Elements From Fire Clay Seam Coal, Xinbo Yang, Rick Q. Honaker May 2020

Leaching Kinetics Of Rare Earth Elements From Fire Clay Seam Coal, Xinbo Yang, Rick Q. Honaker

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

Recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from coal samples collected from the Fire Clay coal seam using diluted mineral acid solutions was investigated. The initial processing step was coal recovery using conventional froth flotation which concentrated the REEs in tailing material resulting in an upgrade to values around 700 ppm on a dry whole mass basis. Leaching experiments were performed on the flotation tailings material using a 1.2 M sulfuric acid solution adjusted to a temperature of 75 °C to study the extractability of REEs from coal material. The effect of particle size, leaching time, leaching temperature, and solid concentration …


A New Hybrid Decision Support Tool For Evaluating The Sustainability Of Mining Projects, S. Kamenopoulos, Zacharias Agioutantis, K. Komnitsas Mar 2018

A New Hybrid Decision Support Tool For Evaluating The Sustainability Of Mining Projects, S. Kamenopoulos, Zacharias Agioutantis, K. Komnitsas

Mining Engineering Faculty Publications

The integration of sustainable development challenges and opportunities into the decision making process during the design and/or implementation of multi-disciplinary mining projects is generally not supported by decision support systems (DSS). A new hybrid decision support tool, which features an integrated assessment of sustainable development issues as they apply to mining projects, is hereby proposed. The proposed DSS framework, named “Acropolis DSS”, can be used to assist involved stakeholders in critical decisions, especially when addressing issues such as stakeholder participation, transparency, and trade-offs. The proposed DSS is based on a multi-criteria decision analysis combined with the multi-attribute utility theory.