Comparison of Processes for Lithium Recovery from Lepidolite by H2SO4 Digestion or HCl Leaching

Lithium is becoming a strategic metal due to its important applications in secondary battery electrodes used in electronic appliances and also in electric traction vehicles. Lithium primary resources are brines and rock minerals, the former being nowadays almost exclusively used in the production of lithium commodities. With the expected increase in lithium demand, the development of competitive technologies for recovery lithium from ores like pegmatites is getting imperative. The high energy and reagents consumption in processing minerals is an issue that should be considered. This paper presents some results on the comparison of two acid treatment routes for lepidolite, the H2SO4 digestion and HCl leaching. Before both chemical treatments, lepidolite was calcined at 800oC and was transformed in a more reactive species, β-spodumene. The H2SO4 digestion at 175oC (followed by water leaching) allowed 88% Li recovery into the solution in 30 min. By the contrary, the HCl leaching process carried out at 90oC also achieved similar yields but only after 4 h of reaction. In both cases, an acid excess was used, but clearly higher for the essays with HCl. The H2SO4 digestion process was also advantageous in what concerns to selectivity over other contained metals. Al, Mn and Fe concentrations in solutions were substantially higher in the hydrochloric acid leaching. These results showed that the digestion with sulphuric acid can be a more efficient and competitive process.