I spent a long time trying to find the reported allanite -La from Paritu, NZ. I finally gave up but came across some unusual purple needles some years later and decided to to do an EDS which confirmed them as allanite-Ce (see Mindat, Paritu NZ)
Monazite and lesser xenotime have been produced as a coproduct of ilmenite and zircon production by Southern Ionics Minerals since 2016. I obtained a nuclear export license and we sold a rare earth mineral concentrate to a chinese customer. In 2019 we were purchased by Chemours (a spinoff from DuPont). We continue to produce a rare earth mineral concentrate but now have a domestic customer - Energy Fuels in Utah. They purchase our monazite concentrate as a uranium feed. They can crack it enough to get the U, but do not yet have the capabilities to process the RE byproducts into commercially useful compounds. Hopefully soon! The separation of monazite from the heavy mineral concentrate that our mines produce is challenging. Like zircon, it is nonconducting, nonmagnetic, and has a high specific gravity. Careful gravity separation w shaker tables is pretty effective, but our monazite concentrate ends up w some intermixed zircon and staurolite. Any epidote or allanite present would likely be rejected with lighter minerals and sent back to the mine w tails.
I am not aware of any allanite in the heavy mineral sands we mine in Georgia and Florida, but we could be mistaking it for epidote which is occasionally present in trace amounts. The primary rare earth minerals in our deposits are monazite and xenotime. They typically have more U and Th in their lattice (1 to >10%) than you indicate is found in Allanite.
Thanks for that. The USGS indicates that the heavy mineral sands from your area have at least monazite concentrated, separated, and stockpiled, but I haven't seen indication that the monazite is processed (yet) for its rare earths. Do you know? Presumably the monazite and xenotime are worth stockpiling but economics so far does not justify processing. Assuming they separate the monazite by density (5.0-5.5 specific gravity), epidote (3.4-3.5) and allanite (3.5-4.2) might be too close (and too light) to discriminate easily.
I spent a long time trying to find the reported allanite -La from Paritu, NZ. I finally gave up but came across some unusual purple needles some years later and decided to to do an EDS which confirmed them as allanite-Ce (see Mindat, Paritu NZ)
Even so, to me it's great that you found allanite-Ce. I'd have been happy to find them! Thanks for sharing.
Monazite and lesser xenotime have been produced as a coproduct of ilmenite and zircon production by Southern Ionics Minerals since 2016. I obtained a nuclear export license and we sold a rare earth mineral concentrate to a chinese customer. In 2019 we were purchased by Chemours (a spinoff from DuPont). We continue to produce a rare earth mineral concentrate but now have a domestic customer - Energy Fuels in Utah. They purchase our monazite concentrate as a uranium feed. They can crack it enough to get the U, but do not yet have the capabilities to process the RE byproducts into commercially useful compounds. Hopefully soon! The separation of monazite from the heavy mineral concentrate that our mines produce is challenging. Like zircon, it is nonconducting, nonmagnetic, and has a high specific gravity. Careful gravity separation w shaker tables is pretty effective, but our monazite concentrate ends up w some intermixed zircon and staurolite. Any epidote or allanite present would likely be rejected with lighter minerals and sent back to the mine w tails.
Well, that's intriguing. I hope you continue to make it work.
I am not aware of any allanite in the heavy mineral sands we mine in Georgia and Florida, but we could be mistaking it for epidote which is occasionally present in trace amounts. The primary rare earth minerals in our deposits are monazite and xenotime. They typically have more U and Th in their lattice (1 to >10%) than you indicate is found in Allanite.
Thanks for that. The USGS indicates that the heavy mineral sands from your area have at least monazite concentrated, separated, and stockpiled, but I haven't seen indication that the monazite is processed (yet) for its rare earths. Do you know? Presumably the monazite and xenotime are worth stockpiling but economics so far does not justify processing. Assuming they separate the monazite by density (5.0-5.5 specific gravity), epidote (3.4-3.5) and allanite (3.5-4.2) might be too close (and too light) to discriminate easily.