Study Level Recovery Processes of Thorium and Several Rare Earth Elements from Monazite Ore

Monazite ore is composed of several minerals including several rare earth element (REE) and thorium phosphates. Many past research projects have looked at the extraction of REE from monazite ore but have discarded the thorium phosphate compound as waste. Since thorium could be a possible fuel for state-of-the-art future nuclear reactors, this research focuses on a way to recover thorium from the monazite ore. The overall purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual recovery process that recovers thorium dioxide from monazite ore. In some parts of the world where uranium sources are limited; then, thorium could be used as an important nuclear energy source. The thorium content of monazite varies up to 20% with North American monazite ores containing about 5% thorium. The current process is scaled for a 1000 kg/hr flow of North American monazite ore. The process will start by acid leaching the ore with sulfuric acid at extreme temperatures. The products of this step will be cooled, dissolved in water and filtered so that thorium will be separated. After this filtration, the process is divided into an upper and lower process containing rare earth elements or thorium, respectively. Separate product streams of rare earth oxides and thorium oxide will be achieved as byproducts and products, respectively. The process economics of capital cost and annual operating cost will be evaluated to determine economic feasible of the process.