Title: The characterization and mineralogical studies of thorium ore deposit in Choghart, Yazd, Iran to evaluate beneficiation prospects

Abstract

This paper investigates the mineralogical characterization of a thorium ore taken from the Choghart iron mine, Yazd, Iran. The mineralogical studies revealed that the main thorium content mineral of the ore was thorite; and it was mainly disseminated as a valuable mineral in different forms in minor quantity along the edge or within the intergranular spaces of gangue silicate minerals and magnetite. The XRF analysis of a radiometric sorting concentrate sample indicated that the sample contained approximately 0.25% thorium oxide, 66.28% silicate compositions, 9.14% iron oxide, and significant amounts of rare earth elements. Sink and Float tests of different sizes of the sample using diiodomethane and bromoform resulted in a 2.22% concentrate with 85.7% thorium recovery. Liberation degree studies by SEM-EDX and image processing indicated that a size range of (-125,+75)µm was the optimum liberation size, and it was recommended for further beneficiation tests.