Selective Leaching of Rare Earth Elements from Ion-Adsorption Rare Earth Tailings: A Synergy between CeO 2 Reduction and Fe/Mn Stabilization

The increasing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) motivates the development of novel strategies for cost-effective REE recovery from secondary sources, especially rare earth tailings. The biggest challenges in recovering REEs from ion-adsorption rare earth tailings are incomplete extraction of cerium (Ce) and the coleaching of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn). Here, a synergistic process between reduction and stabilization was proposed by innovatively using elemental sulfur (S) as reductant for converting insoluble CeO into soluble Ce (SO ) and transforming Fe and Mn oxides into inert FeFe O and MnFe O spinel minerals. After the calcination at 400 °C, 97.0% of Ce can be dissolved using a diluted sulfuric acid, along with only 3.67% of Fe and 23.3% of Mn leached out. Thermodynamic analysis reveals that CeO was indirectly reduced by the intermediates MnSO and FeS in the system. Density functional theory calculations indicated that Fe(II) and Mn(II) shared similar outer electron arrangements and coordination environments, favoring Mn(II) over Ce(III) as a replacement for Fe(II) in the FeO octahedral structure of FeFe O . Further investigation on the leaching process suggested that 0.5 mol L H SO is sufficient for the recovery of REEs (97.0%). This research provides a promising strategy to selectively recover REEs from mining tailings or secondary sources via controlling the mineral phase transformation.