Title
Identification of rare-earth minerals associated to K-feldspar: Capacsaya project in Peru
Date Issued
01 January 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Centre d’Etudes de Saclay
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Publisher(s)
Springer Nature
Abstract
A recently discovered the rare-earth-rich site in Capacsaya, located at 123 km northwest of Cusco, at the south of Peru, contains significant quantities of light and heavy rare-earth elements such as neodymium, lanthanum, cerium, europium, and yttrium. This work reports the identification of rare-earth elements and their associated minerals using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. Five (5) samples extracted from different locations at the Capacsaya site were characterized and identified K-feldspar as the mineral associated with the rare-earth elements in a representative sample with a high concentration of lanthanum and cerium. The results showed rare-earth elements contained within the mineral phase monazite, being cerium the dominant element in the phase (La, Ce, Nd)PO4. Finally, through the electrostatic separation process we demonstrate that it was possible to achieve an efficient separation of the K-feldspar phase in the particle size range 75–150 μ m.
Volume
4
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geología
Nano-materiales
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85120980582
Source
SN Applied Sciences
ISSN of the container
25233971
Sponsor(s)
This research has received funding from the Programa Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad y Productividad, Innóvate Perú, research project INNOVATE C128-PNICP-PIAP-2014 and partially supported by the project INNOVATE C389-PNICP-PIBA-2014 of the Production Ministry of Peru. The authors would like to thank V. Quinde and J. Pajuelo for their very valuable technical support and Elizabeth Carrera, José Díaz and Clemente Luyo for the SEM images.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus
Instituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico