Lithium recovery from Bledug Kuwu Mud volcano using water leaching method

Abstract

Bledug Kuwu of Mud Volcano was investigated by water leaching for lithium recovery in Indonesia deposit. Mud volcano can be used as an alternative resources beside minerals and brine because lithium trapped by geothermal phenomenon. Bledug Kuwu Mud is dominated by Aluminium-Silica Clays and lithium can be found in Li-Montmorillonite phase of Clays. The mud sample which treated in the experiment contains 0.0029% lithium on wet condition. Water leaching was done by adding 500 ml water into the mud to make its ratio become 1:2. The leaching was performed in mixer settler under ambient and low temperature (45 °C) for 2, 3, 4, 5 hours. Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium which analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma, they were abundant element in the brine composition as the filtrate. As increasing temperature, the recovery percentage of lithium was decrease. Water leaching can recovered up to 80% lithium on Clays for ambient and lower temperature. X-Ray diffraction shows that Li-Montmorillonite didn't detect in the dried mud of residue for all experiment. Scanning Electron Microscope used to determine morphology modification of clays after water treatment at different temperature. Furthermore, brine can be used for brine resource on the next lithium processing