Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences in 2025
2026-02-06
Sustainable Utilization of Lithium in Alumina-Rich Ores: Insights from Geology, Processing, and Environmental Management Xiaokun Dong
Authors
-
Xiaokun Dong
Henan Huahui Geological Exploration Co., Ltd., Zhengzhou 450000, China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13630Abstract
Clay-hosted and altered aluminosilicate lithium ores, often rich in alumina, are becoming significant additions to conventional brine and spodumene supply. Their sustainable development hinges on recognizing linked mineralogical and processing constraints. Lithium is typically concentrated in fine-grained aluminosilicate hosts, and extraction conditions that liberate lithium can also mobilize large amounts of aluminium and silica. This drives high reagent consumption, silica gelation, inefficient solid-liquid separation, complex impurity deportment, and voluminous residues. The review synthesizes a geometallurgy-led framework that links deposit setting, lithium deportment, texture, reactivity indices, and impurity suites to select suitable processing routes and manage environmental impacts. It compares major flowsheet families: direct leaching, thermal activation followed by aqueous leaching; alkaline and hybrid strategies; and emerging selective separations, highlighting domain-specific trade-offs among recovery, operability, reagent intensity, energy demand, water recycle, and residue risk. Across routes, aluminium and silica behaviour is the dominant control on plant performance and sustainability hotspots, especially under steady-state recycle water chemistry, where salt deposition can alter rheology and precipitation equilibria. The authors propose domain-sensitive decision logic and a minimum reporting database to improve comparability across studies, and recommend integrating techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment with ore variability. Priority research areas include highly selective lithium separation with minimal aluminosilicate dissolution, low-carbon heat for activation, robust closed-loop water/salt management and stabilization, and viable residue valorization and long-term closure pathways. These advances should be paired with impurity monitoring, control, and governance.
Keywords:
Alumina-Rich Ores; Lithium Deportment; Geometallurgy; Processing Routes; SustainabilityReferences
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Dong, X. (2026). Sustainable Utilization of Lithium in Alumina-Rich Ores: Insights from Geology, Processing, and Environmental Management Xiaokun Dong . Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(8), 1120–1147. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13630
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