Leaching of phosphorus from phosphate tailings and extraction of calcium phosphates: Toward comprehensive utilization of tailing resources

Phosphate tailing is an extremely fine by-product during phosphate ore flotation. Due to the large quantities and relatively higher P2O5 content, the phosphate tailings have been considered as a potential P resource, compared to other P-bearing wastes. Besides, phosphate tailings also contain a large amount of available components, such as Ca, Mg, and Si. To explore a low-cost and efficient process for the utilization of phosphate tailings, the hydrochloric acid leaching-precipitation method was employed to recover phosphorus. The P in phosphate tailings can be selectively dissolved into leaching liquor, followed by the precipitation of calcium phosphates from the leaching liquor through pH adjustment. The results showed that P was predominantly concentrated in fluorapatite and its dissolution ratio increased with the decrease in pH. At pH 1.0, the P dissolution efficiency from phosphate tailings reached 96.3%, along with the majority of Mg and Ca. However, Si was hardly dissolved. It demonstrated that almost all the fluorapatite and dolomite were dissolved while the quartz was difficult to dissolve. Dolomite was more preferentially dissolved than fluorapatite. Increasing temperature contributed to the dissolution of dolomite while suppressing fluorapatite dissolution. The residue containing 87.9% SiO2 (quartz) and only 0.25% P2O5 has the potential as a building material. As the pH increased to 7.0, the collected precipitate consisted of 34.18% P2O5 and 56.10% CaO, which can serve as a source of a slow-released phosphate fertilizer. The highly efficient utilization of phosphate tailings was achieved via this process.