Mining Development:
Mining development is usually carried out underground because most lithium deposits are underground. This includes making caves, roadways and coal outburst doors. The ore mined every day is loaded into transport vehicles or belts and sent to surface treatment.
Crushing and sorting:
The ore sent to the surface is sent to the crusher to make it into smaller lumps. Then, the ore will be transported to the separator for separation, separating the lithium component from other impurities.
Lithium ore processing:
Mineral processing: the purpose of mineral processing is to separate useful minerals from waste rocks and improve the grade of lithium. This usually includes crushing, grinding, flotation and other steps.
Leaching: the lithium in the ore is dissolved to form a leaching solution containing lithium. This usually uses chemical leaching method, and common leaching agents include sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, etc.
Enrichment and purification: lithium in the leaching solution needs to be enriched and purified. The enrichment methods include solvent extraction, ion exchange, extraction and precipitation.
Electrolytic refining:
After enrichment and purification, the lithium solution needs to be electrolytic refined, and the metal lithium with high purity is deposited by the action of current. The conditions of electrolytic refining include the temperature, current density and electrolyte composition of the electrolytic cell, which need to be strictly controlled to ensure the purity and quality of lithium produced.
Particulate technology:
In order to improve the purity and precision of lithium salt, micron technology may be used to further refine and process, resulting in very fine (micron level) high-purity lithium salt particles.
Packaging and transportation:
Finally, high purity micron sized lithium salt particles need to be subpackaged, packaged and transported to the manufacturing plant or workshop using lithium salt. During transportation, it is necessary to maintain the dryness and purity of lithium salt particles.
It should be noted that the production process of lithium ore may vary depending on the specific deposit conditions, ore types and technologies adopted. In addition, with the growth of lithium demand, the optimization and innovation of lithium ore processing process will continue to be the focus of research to meet the market demand.
