The Lovozero mining and processing plant is currently the only one operating enterprise in Russia extracting and producing rare earth metal concentrate from the Lovozero loparite deposit, which contains Nb, Ta, rare earth metals, and Ti. Raw materials for the plant could additionally be sourced from technogenic tailings of the Karna-Surt processing plant. The loparite content of tailings is calculated on the basis of (1) the loparite content in processed ores and losses during processing and (2) according to point sampling data. These methods provide good convergence of results (0.58–0.77 %). Mineralogical study of small technological samples showed that loparite in enrichment tailings occurs as large grains and small fragments. Most loparite occurs in gravity-enriched classes 0.071–0.500 mm in size. The tailings has a heterogeneous mostly concentric structure caused by the redistribution of heavy fraction due to natural and technogenic processes, which should be taken into account during the assessment works.
Keywords: tailing dumps, loparite, niobium, rare metals, Lovozero pluton.
Funding. This work was supported by state contract of the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Mineralogy, Petrography, Geochemistry, and Mineralogy RAS (Moscow, Russia).
Acknowledgments. We are grateful to the management of the Lovozero mining and processing plant for sampling the technogenic tailings and information on their parameters, as well as to the reviewers for careful reading the manuscript and important comments.
Conflict of Interest. The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to the manuscript.
Author Contributions. A.V. Lalomov – field works, analysis, writing the manuscript; E.N. Levchenko – analysis of technological properties of technogenic deposits, a possible enrichment scheme, and concentrate parameters; A.V. Grigorieva – field works, description of minerals in technogenic deposits. All authors approved the final version of the article prior to publication.
For citation: Lalomov A.V., Levchenko E.N., Grigorieva A.V. Structure, composition, generation patterns and potential of technogenic dumps at the Lovozero mining and processing plant, Russia. Mineralogy, 2026, 12(3), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.35597/2313-545X-2026-12-3-5

Received 12.01.2026, revised 04.08.2026, accepted 08.09.2026

Aleksandr V. Lalomov – Doct. Sci. (Geol.-Mineral.), Leading Researcher, Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IGEM RAS), Moscow, Russia;
lalomov@mail.ru
Elena N. Levchenko – Doct. Sci. (Geol.-Mineral.), Deputy Director General, Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements (IMGRE), Moscow, Russia; lev_imgre@rambler.ru
Antonina V. Grigorieva – Cand. Sci. (Geol.-Mineral.), Senior Researcher, Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IGEM RAS), Moscow, Russia;
grig357@mail.ru

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