Magnesium is one of the most important resources in many industries. Its production is currently energy-intensive, harmful to the environment and underdeveloped in Europe. Therefore, new production methods are actively being developed. One of the most common sources of magnesium is dolomite, which is also abundant in Slovenia. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to improve the separation of magnesium from calcium in dolomite. Firstly, the chemical composition of dolomite was determined using microwave digestion followed by ICP-OES analysis. The dolomite was then calcined in a muffle furnace. To accurately determine the thermal decomposition behaviour of dolomite, thermogravimetric analysis was performed. The main part of the thesis was the selective leaching and precipitation with the help of complexing agents. The magnesium recovery and molar ratio Mg/Ca attained by repeating the original process were lower compared to the ones in the original process on which my work was based on. With the use of complexing agents magnesium recovery stayed low, but the molar ratio was improved significantly. Finally, the surface morphology and elemental composition of dolomite and the obtained products were characterised using SEM and EDS.
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