Comprehensive Recovery Trial of Complex Cesium-Lithium Quartz-Feldspar Tailings Concludes Successfully

Recently, our institute's testing center successfully completed a comprehensive mineral processing trial targeting complex tailings resources from Canada after over three months of work. Commissioned by a long-term strategic partner, this trial aimed to efficiently recover multiple valuable elements—including cesium, lithium, rubidium, and tantalum—from the same ore sample while simultaneously separating quartz and feldspar. The process involved high complexity and significant technical challenges, fully demonstrating our institute's robust R&D capabilities in treating difficult-to-process ores and unconventional mineral resources.

Cesium and lithium represent the primary recovery targets in the original tailings ore, accompanied by co-occurring rhodium and tantalum suitable for integrated recovery. The ore exhibits complex mineral composition, with target minerals closely intergrown and multiple concentrate products sharing similar properties, making separation exceptionally difficult. Confronting these challenges, our technical team upheld a spirit of relentless pursuit of excellence, conducting extensive detailed condition tests and comparative evaluations of processing schemes while continuously optimizing the process flow and reagent systems.

The finalized closed-circuit test flow demonstrated that a customized approach combining staged grinding, multi-stage flotation, and desliming operations achieved remarkable separation metrics. This successfully yielded qualified lithium concentrate, enriched rubidium mica concentrate, and cesium concentrate, while effectively separating and recovering gangue minerals like feldspar. This achievement not only enables efficient enrichment of valuable elements but also provides a reliable technical foundation for the industrial development and utilization of such resources.

The successful completion of this complex trial stands as another testament to our institute's commitment to “creating value for clients.” It reaffirms our technical team's capability to tackle mineral processing challenges involving unconventional and complex ores, further validating our extensive technical expertise in handling over 70 types of ores. Moving forward, our institute will continue to deepen its expertise in mineral processing technologies, delivering more professional and efficient solutions to global partners.