[Rockhounds] Fossil Fish and Rare Earth Deposits

[Paul]

batsondebelfry wrote:

 >Andrew, I appreciate your analysis. It causes me
 >to wonder about the phosphate deposits in Florida
 >(mostly former) and Morocco (current). Would they
 >have concentrated rare earths? I know the Florida
 >deposits were processed after mining, and before
 >shipment. If the Rare Earths were removed during
 >processing,I wonder if the wastes were just dumped
 >or were they processed further to recover some
 >of the other elements present?

In general the wastes were just dumped. At this time,
people are considering reprocessing the waste to
recover the Rare Earths. For example:

Brückner, L., Elwert, T. and Schirmer, T., 2020.
Extraction of Rare Earth Elements from
Phospho-Gypsum: Concentrate Digestion, Leaching,
and Purification. Metals, 10(1), no.131.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/1/131/htm
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/1/131/pdf

Liang, H., Zhang, P., Jin, Z. and DePaoli, D., 2017.
Rare earths recovery and gypsum upgrade from Florida
phosphogypsum. Minerals & Metallurgical Processing,
34(4), pp.201-206.
https://www.osti.gov/pages/servlets/purl/1437893
https://link.springer.com/article/10.19150/mmp.7860

Liang, H., Zhang, P., Jin, Z. and DePaoli, D.W.,
2018. Rare Earth and Phosphorus Leaching from a
Flotation Tailings of Florida Phosphate Rock.
Minerals, 8(9), no.416.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/9/416
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/9/416/pdf

Yours,

Paul H.