Abstract: Lithium and cesium， which deserve to be recovered in the tailings sample of a fine-grained lepidolite concentrator， often exist in pollucite. Pollucite is crystallinely locked with mica， with grade of Li₂O 0.70% and Rb₂O 0.24% in the sample. The particle size of the sample is fine， and the grain yield of -800 mesh reaches up to 43.90%. Lithium is obviously enriched in coarse grain grade. In order to determine the recovery process of lithium and rubidium in the sample， the dressing test was carried out using the pre-desliming and flotation process. The results showed that the sample was pretreated in scrubbing and desliming (-20 μm) with the addition of sodium silicate， and the slurry pH was adjusted to 3 by hydrochloric acid. The lithium-rubidium concentrate， in which the grade of Li₂O and Rb₂O were 2.62% and 0.87%， respectively， and the recovery rate were 66.47% and 64.38%， respectively， was obtained with two roughing-one cleaning process. The valuable elements， lithium and rubidium， were fully recovered finally.

Key words: Lepidolite, Tailings, Pollucite, Desliming, Recovery of lithium and rubidium