Recovery of valuable metals from lepidolite by atmosphere leaching and kinetics on dissolution of lithium

The lepidolite located in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, China, was adopted to investigate the recovery of alkali metals and leaching kinetics of lithium with sulphuric acid solution under atmospheric pressure. The results show that the recoveries of alkali metals were achieved under the leaching conditions: mass ratio of lepidolite with particle size less than 180 μm to sulphuric acid 1.2, leaching temperature 411 K, liquid−solid ratio 2.5:1, and leaching time 10 h. Under the selected conditions for leaching experiment, the leaching rates of lithium, potassium, rubidium and caesium are 94.18%, 93.70%, 91.81% and 89.22%, respectively. The X-ray diffraction analysis for leaching residue indicates that no insoluble product forms during leaching. The chemical compositions of leaching residue reveal that trace iron, manganese and calcium disappear after acid leaching. The kinetics of leaching process for lithium follows shrinking core model of mixed control and the apparent activation energy is 17.21 kJ/mol. The reaction orders with respect to sulphuric acid concentration and liquid−solid ratio are determined to be 2.85 and 1.66, respectively. A semi-empirical rate equation was obtained to describe the leaching process. The kinetic analysis shows that the leaching process is controlled by diffusion through the insoluble layer of the associated minerals.