Titanium extraction from red mud via hydrometallurgical treatment

Gözde Alkan, Claudia Schier, Dr. Srecko Stopic, Prof. Bernd Friedrich

Physical and chemical processing of bauxite produces a large amount of reddish-brown colored solid waste product called “red mud” [1 – 4]. Depending on the operation conditions of Bayer Process and the properties of bauxite ores, approximately 0,8 – 1,5 tons of red mud is produced per ton of alumina production. In 2012, it was reported that the total annual red mud generated in the world is between 60 and 120 million tons. These increased production rates and precious mineral content including Fe2O3, A12O3, SiO2, TiO2, Na2O and CaO and rare earths induced the utilization of red mud as a secondary resource [3]. The focus of this study is recovering titanium (Ti) as a valuable compound by hydrometallurgical treatment of red mud. The effects of different acid leachates on the extraction efficiency of titanium and selectivity over iron were elucidated using ICP measurement. Mineralogical and microstructural findings were enlighted by XRD and SEM analyses.