Application of the alkali extraction process to turkish trona deposit

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the applicability of the solution mining technique to a Turkish trona deposit. For this purpose, the alkali extraction process was applied. In this process, aqueous sodium hydroxide was used to dissolve the crude trona. The aqueous mining solvent contained 7.3 % sodium hydroxide. Monohydrate crystals produced by evaporative crystallization at 100° C were calcined to produce dense soda ash. The yield of the process was found to be 70 %.