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Minerals of base metals
Published in Francis P. Gudyanga, Minerals in Africa, 2020
Rubidium (Rb), which belongs to the alkali metal group and is roughly as abundant as zinc and more than copper [595], is highly reactive with rapid oxidation in air and reacts violently with water and forms amalgams with mercury, alloying with gold, iron, caesium, and potassium [594]. It is very soft and ductile [593]. Rubidium is found in minerals leucite, pollucite, carnallite and zinnwaldite. The commercial source of the metal is lepidolite [596] but can also be found in potassium minerals and potassium chlorides in commercially significant amounts [597] as well as in seawater [598]. Deposits of rubidium in large quantities [595] are zone pegmatite ore bodies formed during magma crystallisation.
Global Outlook on the Availability of Critical Metals and Recycling Prospects from Rechargeable Batteries
Published in Abhilash, Ata Akcil, Critical and Rare Earth Elements, 2019
Pratima Meshram, B.D. Pandey, Abhilash
Lithium is produced from a variety of natural sources, for example, minerals such as spodumene, clays such as hectorite, salt lakes, and underground brine reservoirs. Lithium is a minor component of igneous rocks, primarily granite. The most abundant lithium-containing rocks/minerals (Table 2.3) are pegmatites, spodumene, and petalite. Other minerals are lepidolite, amblygonite, zinnwaldite, and eucryptite (Ferrell, 1985). Zinnwaldite is the impure form of lepidolite with a higher FeO content (up to 11.5% Fe as FeO) and MnO (3.2%) (Paukov et al., 2010). Pegmatites contain recoverable amounts of lithium, tin, tantalum, niobium, beryllium, and other elements. The theoretical lithium content in these minerals is 3%–5.53%, but most mineral deposits have around 0.5%–2% Li and the pegmatite-bearing ores that are often exploited have <1% Li (Mohr et al., 2010). Spodumene is the primary lithium mineral being mined.
Beneficiation of lithium bearing pegmatite rock: a review
Published in Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, 2022
Saroj Kumar Sahoo, Sunil Kumar Tripathy, A. Nayak, K. C. Hembrom, S. Dey, R. K. Rath, M. K. Mohanta
Zinnwaldite is a lithian-ferrous iron mica. Interlayer cations are largely K, with minor replacement by other large alkalis, and the cations of octahedral coordination are commonly Fe2+, Li+, and Al+3, in essentially equal numbers, with minor Ti4+, Fe3+, Mg2+, Mn2+ and many other trace elements. F-ions are commonly more abundant than (OH)- in hydroxyl sites. Zinnwaldite is essentially confined to granite pegmatites and high-temperature hydrothermal veins, where it is generally associated with cassiterite (Phillips and Griffen 1981). Zinnwaldite is a typical mineral of rare metal granites and pegmatites and is used as a source of rubidium and cesium also. It is unappealing as a resource because of its high iron content and low Li2O content (Jandová, Dvořák, and Vu 2010).