Kinetics of Rare Earth Extraction from Baotou Bastnaesite in Hydrochloric Acid and Aluminum Chloride

In this paper, the leaching kinetics of rare earth from Baotou bastnaesite in a HCl–AlCl3 solution was investigated. In addition, the effects of the HCl and AlCl3 concentrations, liquid to solid ratio, stirring speed, temperature, and time spent on the rare earth extraction were determined. The results indicated that the extraction was nearly independent of the stirring speed when it did not exceed 300 rpm, and the rate of leaching increased with increases in the HCl and AlCl3 concentrations, liquid to solid ratio, temperature, and time. The optimum dissolution conditions were determined under five experimental conditions. After leaching occurred, the progressive dissolution of the bastnaesite phase could be determined. The leaching kinetics was analyzed with a new variant of the shrinking core model in which both the interfacial transfer and diffusion across the product layer affected the rare earth extraction. The apparent activation energy was 35.57 kJ/mol, and the Arrhenius constant was 341.58 min−1. An empirical equation was derived to describe the extraction process of rare earth minerals.