South Urals Research Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology (Miass, Russia)

Korekina M. A., Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Researcher, maria@mineralogy.ru

Plazlay LLC (Moscow, Russia)
Goptar A. I., Technical Director
Vorobyov V. V., Lead Engineer

South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russia)
Igumentsev K. V., Student

The paper considers the prospects of using a fast, cost-effective method of natural quartz purification based on the use of the synergistic effect of the combined use of acid or aqueous leaching with ultrasonic action, using the example of the raw materials of vein No. 175 of the Kyshtym deposit of granular quartz. Traditional benefication processes often do not effectively remove the full range of impurities and inclusions present in quartz and determining its trace element composition, which in turn affects the quality of products made from it. It has been established that the preliminary preparation of quartz raw materials, including its mechanical grinding and magnetic separation, can not only reduce the grain size, but also contribute to the preliminary extraction of parts of mineral and fluid inclusions from the intergranular space and cracks present in granular quartz. It has been shown that combined acidic or aqueous leaching is most effective under ultrasound exposure. The effectiveness of using the ultrasonic method is based on the occurrence of microbubbles (cavitation), the collapse of which leads to the generation of local shock waves and microcurrents, which accelerates the dissolution of impurities in an aqueous and acidic environment and effectively removes remaining impurities from hard-to-reach intergranular spaces and microcracks. It has been found that if optimal process parameters are observed, such as acid concentration, temperature, processing time, and intensity of ultrasonic exposure, the concentration of some impurity elements can be reduced tenfold, which significantly increases the industrial suitability of quartz raw materials.

The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation and the Chelyabinsk Region as part of the scientific project No. 25-27-20047.

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