LEACHING OF BAUXITE ORES, FILTRATION (ALUMINIUM)

Figure 1. 1 Bauxite ore Figure 1.2 Alumina product

Introduction

Aluminium is very reactive, it is not found in elemental form in nature. Aluminum occurs
in igneous rocks mainly as aluminosilicates and upon weathering as bauxite and iron-
rich laterite. Bauxite, a mixture of hydrated aluminum oxides, is the principal aluminum ore.
Bauxite ore consists of a heterogeneous mixture of aluminium hydroxides (30-60% w/w) such as
gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (AlO(OH)) or diaspore (AlO(OH)) in addition to various
combinations of silica (SiO2), alumosilicates, iron oxide (Fe2O3), titanium oxide (TiO2) and
other impurities such as carbonates and sulphides in trace amounts

Production and reserves of Bauxite

More than 160 million metric tons of bauxite are mined each year. The leaders in bauxite
production include Australia, China, Brazil, Guinea and India. Bauxite reserves are estimated to
be 55 to 75 billion metric tons, primarily spread across Africa (32 percent), Oceania (23 percent),
South America and the Caribbean (21 percent) and Asia (18 percent).

The alumina content of bauxite ores varies from one deposit to another, and methods of
treatment differ accordingly. This means that each alumina plant is almost tailormade to suit a
particular bauxite. The processes are nevertheless similar, the major steps in alumina refining are
as follows:

 Bauxite ore preparation using rod mills, ball mills, or semiautogenous grinding mills to
produce fine slurry.

 Leaching of the slurry by caustic soda (NaOH) at strengths exceeding 170 g/L in vessels
under pressure at temperatures ranging from 145 to 265°C depending on the type of
bauxite being processed.

 Solid liquid separation.

The metal has a higher oxidation potential for it to be commercially extracted using carbon
reduction method. The operation is not economic because the operating temperature is too high.
Instead electrolysis is used, the ore is first converted into aluminum oxide and this is then
electrolyzed in solution in molten cryolite - another aluminum compound. 

Production of aluminum at industrial scale involves two dependent stages, these are the Bayer
process which makes alumina from bauxite using thermochemical digestion and the Hall-Heroult
process which produces molten aluminum by electrolytic reduction of alumina.

Since Karl Josef Bayer patented his process for production of alumina from bauxite in 1888, the
Bayer process has been, and in all probability will continue to be, the dominating process for
alumina production for the aluminium industry. There are, however, other processes developed
for the use of bauxitic or non-bauxitic ores, which require different chemical processing
compared to the Bayer process1). In Norway, the Pedersen process based on bauxitic ores, was
operated industrially for more than 40 years. In Russia, production of alumina from nepheline
syenite and alunite is still being done in industrial scale1). Economically and with respect to
energy consumption, these processes have far from being able to compete with the Bayer
process.

Though alumina can be produced from bauxite under alkaline conditions using lime sinter
process and sodium carbonate (Deville Pechiney process) at high temperature in reducing
environment with presence of coke and nitrogen [4], the alkalinization by the use of sodium
hydroxide (Bayer process) is the most economical process which is employed for purification of
bauxite if it contains considerable amount of Fe2O3 [5]

The production process of Bayer alumina is shown in Figure 2. In the Bayer process, bauxite is
leached with a hot solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at temperature of 150–240°C and at 1–
6 atm pressure [7]. The aluminum minerals in the bauxite may be present as gibbsite (Al(OH) 3),
boehmite (AlOOH) or diaspore (AlOOH) [8]. The different forms of the aluminum component
will dictate the extraction conditions. The undissolved waste and bauxite tailings contain iron
oxides, silica, calcia, titania and some unreacted alumina. After separation of the residue by
filtering, pure gibbsite (also known as bayerite) is precipitated when the liquid is cooled, and
then seeded with fine-grained aluminum hydroxide

High pressures are necessary to keep the water in the sodium hydroxide solution liquid at
temperatures above 100°C. The higher the temperature, the higher the pressure needed. With hot
concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, aluminum oxide reacts to give a solution of sodium
tetrahydroxoaluminate

Types of leaching

1. Bioleaching

Bioleaching involves the use of bacterial microorganisms to recover metals from primary ores or
secondary sources. Thiobacilli species is the most common microorganism that is known to
facilitate metal bioleaching reactions. These microorganisms utilize insoluble metal sulphides or
sulphur as an energy source producing sulphuric acid. Bioleaching has advantages of low cost,
mild process conditions and low energy demand or landfill space. However slow kinetics,
comparably low recovery (~25%) and insufficient selectivity with respect to specific metals,
particularly aluminum offsets the advantages of using this method for aluminium extraction in
bauxite ores[ CITATION She12 \l 1033 ]

2. Alkaline leaching

In basic leaching, solutions of NaOH or alkaline salts such as Na2CO3 are used, often under
pressure to permit the use of elevated temperatures[ CITATION She12 \l 1033 ]

Dissolution of alumina

3. Acid leaching

Aluminium is an amphoteric metal, meaning it dissolves in both acidic and alkaline solutions.
However if bauxite is treated hydrometallurgically with an acidic solution (say hydrochloric
acid), not only the aluminium dissolves but also a significant number of other elements in the ore
(especially iron), producing a complex solution from which the aluminium has to be selectively
extracted. Acid leaching is used for non-bauxite ores with a high silica content[CITATION Aic16 \l
1033 ]

Solid liquid separation