Application of the universal ultrasonic reactor in the processing of rare earth metal ores concentrates

In recent years, heavy industry has rapidly increased interest in rare earth metals (REE). At the same time, new tasks on completeness of extraction and quality (purity) of REE are set. Providing new requirements for the quality of rare-earth metals can be achieved by two modern methods of ore processing. The first method is traditional leaching, but with the use of modern ultrasonic reactors of a through passage type of domestic production. The second method is leaching with the use of expensive imported impregnated sorbents that require special disposal after the deposition process of the desired fraction of material. The disadvantage of ultrasonic devices for processing of rare-earth metals is that the assigned parameters of the working chamber (length and diameter) are calculated for a specific type of ore being processed. Therefore, ultrasonic reactors operating in the metallurgical industry cannot be used to process all types of REE ores. The aim of the work is to study the efficiency of processing concentrates of ores containing rare earth elements by leaching using a universal ultrasonic reactor suitable for processing various concentrates containing rare earth elements. In this work, alkaline ore processing is carried out in an ultrasonic reactor of a special design, which allows regulation of the dimensions of the reactor working space this makes it possible to configure the reactor for highly efficient ore processing at different initial concentrations of valuable components. As shown by the results of the experiments, the extraction of rareearth metals and other valuable components of the ore in the ultrasonic reactor of this design is not less than 98.3%.