Development of Kinetic Parameters for Nitric Acid Leaching of Phlogopite and the Characterization of Solid Products

South Africa is a net importer of fertilizer products, importing all of its potassium, as well as 60–70% of its nitrogen requirements. Thus, domestic prices are impacted significantly by international prices, shipping costs, and exchange rates. Producing these fertilizers locally would be far more economical. Phlogopite, a rich source of potassium, is discarded in large quantities during mining operations; the objective of the present study, therefore, was to determine the acid-leaching characteristics and behavior of phlogopite as a means of releasing potassium. Phlogopite samples were leached with nitric acid (source of nitrogen for fertilizers) at various concentrations, temperatures, and reaction times. The feed phlogopite and leached residue samples corresponding to conversions of 14% (LP1), 44% (LP2), and 100% (LP3) were collected and analyzed using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and porosity analysis (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM). The feed phlogopite was highly crystalline. The absence of defects in the lattice meant that the motion of H + atoms penetrating into the lattice was restricted, suggesting internal diffusion-controlled leaching. Furthermore, results obtained from the various analytical techniques corroborated each other in terms of the release of cations during leaching. All leaching experiments were conducted batchwise, in a closed system. The gravimetric data from the experiments were used to identify a suitable model which predicts accurately the leaching behavior. The reaction was found to be internal diffusion-controlled, and the D1 model, which represents one-dimensional diffusion through a flat plate, predicts the leaching behavior most accurately. The observed activation energies ( E a ) and pre-exponential constants (k 0 ) varied with initial nitric acid concentration ([H + ] 0 ).