great read thanks very much. as a chemist i totally understand...

great read thanks very much. as a chemist i totally understand the process and have included the last paragraph. as i was told petalite is converted to lithium carbonate in the same process as spodumene. from the chemical weight of petalite compared to spodumene you probably get about 70% lithium carbonate versus equal amount of spodumene. i will work out exact figure tomorrow after a decent sleep.


The extraction rates of lithium are significantly influenced by roasting temperature, stirring speed and solid liquid ratio. Maximum extraction of 97.30 % was realised at a roasting temperature of 300 °C, solid/liquid ratio (1/7.5 g/mL), stirring speed of 320 rpm at leaching temperature of 50 °C in 60 minutes. The experimental results show that purity of Li2CO3 produced by this process was 99.21 % (metal basis). XRD of the synthesised powder indicate that no other phases were present except of zabuyelite (Li2CO3). The thermograms for synthesised and commercial Li2CO3 where almost identical with both powder starts decomposing around 725 °C.