Metals fact sheet - samarium
The crustal abundance of samarium is 7 ppm, similar to that of praseodymium and gadolinium. About 50 percent of the total samarium oxide produced worldwide comes from the mining of monazite. Bastnasite accounts for approximately 40 percent of samarium oxide production, and the remaining 10 percent is derived from other rare earth minerals such as xenotime, apatite, loparite, and rare earth clays. Monazite is usually found in alluvial or beach deposits associated with other heavy minerals, typically rutile and zircon, and is recovered by suction dredging or bucket wheel excavation. The heavy minerals are subsequently separated by gravity, magnetic, and/or electrostatic means, and the resulting monazite concentrate undergoes a series of caustic and acid leaching steps to isolate the rare earths. Bastnasite, on the other hand, is a fluorocarbonate associated with igneous intrusions in quartzite or epithermal, fluorite-bearing veins, and is mined by open-pit methods. The ore is beneficiated by flotation, then acid-leached, filtered and calcined to produce a rare earth concentrate. Although a light rare earth, samarium oxide is isolated only after about three stages of solvent extraction, together with heavier oxides of gadolinium, terbium, and yttrium.
- OSTI ID:
- 426188
- Journal Information:
- Elements, Vol. 2, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Oct-Nov 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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