Abstract:

Lithium is widely used in new types of energy materials and the applications are growing fast. Lithium hard-rock ores are the main resources for lithium production. The trend of lithium recovery from the ores is to realize cleaning and effective production, and resource comprehensive utilizations. Based on the composition and structure analysis of various kinds of lithium ores, its recovery by a variety of methods, such as, typically, acidic, alkaline, salt were reviewed. Future development for the techniques of lithium recovery from ores was also discussed. It is shown that the lithium extraction by acidic methods was usually high. However, the composition of the acidic leachate was complex, resulting in a long process of purification of lithium. It also could cause environmental pollution by off-gas when processing the ores containing fluorine. Alkali and salt based processes had good lithium selectivity, but its extraction was low and the cost was high, and large amounts of solid wastes were generated difficult to store and re-use. Some other methods have both advantages and disadvantages, such as high-temperature chlorination method which has high metal recovery and ready solid residue utilization but has high corrosiveness to the equipment. Therefore, the development of new processes for extracting lithium from ore is focused on reducing the output of waste residue and achieving comprehensive recovery of associated resources.

Key words: lithiumores, lithium extraction, precipitation, recovery, pollution, comprehensive utilization

摘要：

近年来锂的开发随着新型能源的大规模应用得到快速发展。锂矿石是提取锂产品的主要来源之一，矿石提锂高效清洁工艺开发与资源综合利用是该领域发展的必然趋势。在分析锂矿石组成及结构特点的基础上，对酸法、碱法、盐法等典型提锂工艺进行了综述，重点讨论了锂生产过程中存在的环境污染及资源综合利用问题。酸法提锂工艺中锂回收率高，但酸性浸出液成分复杂，纯化步骤流程长，含氟矿石产生含氟气体污染环境。碱法和盐法工艺选择性好，但锂回收率较低、成本高、渣量大。除此以外，其他方法都存在明显的优缺点，如高温氯化法回收率高，渣的利用具有一定优势，但设备腐蚀严重。因此，矿石提锂新工艺的开发重点在于减少废渣的产出，并实现伴生资源的综合回收。

关键词: 锂矿石, 锂提取, 沉淀, 回收, 污染, 综合利用