Highlights
- Chinese researchers discovered lyticite as the main niobium mineral in Bayan Obo, offering new opportunities for industrial resource utilization.
- The Bayan Obo deposit is a world-class rare earth-niobium-iron polymetallic site with significant strategic importance for China’s mineral resources.
- Systematic geological and mineralogical studies are paving the way for more efficient processing and development of niobium resources in the region.
Recently the Baotou Steel Mining Research Institute shared that the research on comprehensive utilization of niobium resources in Bayan Obo has achieved a new result that "refractory stone is the main niobium mineral with great potential for industrial development and utilization of niobium resources in the Bayan Obo deposit", which will directly affect Bayan Obo.
Bayan' obo Mining District, or Baiyun-Obo or Baiyun'ebo, is a mining district in the west of Inner Mongolia, China. It is under the administration of Baotou City, the downtown of which is more than 120 kilometres to the south.
Note this niobium resource beneficiation process and related pharmaceutical development are of great significance in promoting the development and utilization of niobium resources in Bayan Obo with high quality and efficiency.
What is Niobium?
Niobium is an important strategic mineral resource and is widely used in high-end industries such as aerospace and atomic energy. As the world's largest consumer of niobium resources, China has long been highly dependent on imported niobium resources.
The Bayan Obo Deposit
The Bayan Obo deposit is a world-class rare earth-niobium-iron polymetallic deposit, with niobium resource reserves ranking first in the country. However, due to its low grade, many types of niobium minerals, scattered distribution, and small particles, it is extremely difficult to process and smelt. So far, Failed to realize industrial utilization.
Accelerating Processing
In order to speed up the realization of "niobium" turning into gold and help solve the problem of "stuck neck" of niobium resources in China, since 2023, the research team of Academician Li Xianhua of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has teamed up with the Baogang Mining Research Institute to target the Bayan Obo Mine. To comprehensively utilize bed niobium resources, detailed field geological surveys and mineral deposit geological studies have been carried out, and systematic mineralogy and geochemical studies have been carried out on six main types of ores in Bayan'e Bozhu and Dong mines, as well as raw ores selected by the existing mineral processing production line.
Partnership Approach
The research team found that the easy lytic stone is found in the massive niobium rare earth iron ore, fluorite type striped niobium rare earth iron ore, niobite type niobium rare earth (iron) ore, andsodium amphibole type niobium rare earth iron ore in Bayan Obo. ,dolomite-type niobium rare-earth (iron) ore, and biotite-type niobium rare-earth (iron) ore are all distributed, and the particle size is larger in the neonite-type niobium rare-earth (iron) ore, with millimeter to centimeter-scale minerals visible The aggregate has natural advantages in mineral processing; among the raw ores selected in the mineral processing production line, lyticite is not only the mineral with the highest niobium distribution rate, but also the mineral with the highest proportion of niobium minerals in the raw ore. Therefore, it can be concluded that "lyticite is The research conclusion that the Bayan Obo deposit is the main niobium mineral with great potential for industrial development and utilization of niobium resources can be used as the primary target mineral for the industrial utilization of niobium resources.
In addition, the research team found that coarse-crystalline lyticite is most easily produced in niobite-type rare earth (iron) ores. The average grade of niobium in this type of ore ranks first among all types of ores, and some of them are rich in both niobium and niobium. Containing coarse-crystalline lyticite, it is a high-quality raw material for the industrial utilization of niobium resources.
It is worth mentioning that the research team also found that lucidity is a potential medium and heavy rare earth resource. Compared with the typical light rare earth minerals bastnaesite and monazite in Bayan Obo, Lucite is significantly enriched in heavy rare earth elements and is an important carrier of medium and heavy rare earth resources.
The research team of the Geological Research Office of the Institute of Mining Research said: This discovery will provide new research directions and work paths for the selection of beneficiation processes and pharmaceutical development of niobium resources in Bayan Obo. The above research results have been published in the international mineralogy journal Minerals. Based on the phased results achieved, the Institute of Mining Research has currently formulated a research plan for classified mining, classified stacking, and classified selection of this type of ore, and has completed the independent production of 40,000 tons of high-niobium ore in the main mine and 50,000 tons in the east mine. Stacking, the next step will be to carry out laboratory tests.
Extra Notes
Since the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, Baotou Steel Group (opens in a new tab) has been committed to solving the problems of development and utilization of niobium resources in Bayan Obo. Universities, enterprises and scientific research institutes have carried out a large amount of scientific research work. Although a series of fruitful results have been achieved, the problem of industrial application of niobium resources has not yet been completely solved.
In recent years, Baotou Steel Group has relied on its resource advantages to carry out extensive exchanges and cooperation, actively build a technological innovation system and a scientific research pattern with complementary advantages, with enterprises as the main body, industrial innovation needs as the guide, and in-depth cooperation between industry, academia and research, and promote the accelerated transformation of niobium resources into the niobium industry.
It is understood that the above research was carried out in the National Natural Science Foundation of China's major research program "Strategic Key Metal Supernormal Enrichment Mineralization Dynamics" integrated project "Spatial and temporal evolution and resource amount of the super-large, rare earth-niobium deposit in Bayan Obo", Baotou Steel (Group)).
The company's Bayan Obo mineral resources comprehensive utilization academician workstation project "Geochemistry of Medium and Heavy Rare Earths in Bayan Obo Mineral Deposits" Completed with the support of three scientific research projects: "Study on Typical Niobium Minerals and Spatial Distribution of Niobium Resources in Bayan Obo Deposits" and "Research on Typical Niobium Minerals and Spatial Distribution of Niobium Resources in Bayan Obo Deposit". It is the latest step in jointly promoting the deep integration of innovation chain, industrial chain and talent chain between industry, academia and research.
The practical results will provide a better scientific research environment and development momentum for the efficient, economical and orderly development of niobium resources in Bayan Obo.
Daniel
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