Process for producing sodium carbonate from an ore mineral comprising sodium bicarbonate

A process to produce sodium carbonate, comprising:

• introducing sodium carbonate monohydrate particles into a dryer in order to produce anhydrous sodium carbonate;
• wherein a gas stream loaded with sodium carbonate particles is extracted from the dryer;
• and wherein the gas stream loaded with sodium carbonate particles is filtered in order to produce the sodium carbonate particles having a mean diameter D50, measured by sieve analysis, less than 250 μm;
• adding a stream of sodium carbonate fine particles having a mean diameter D50, measured by sieve analysis, less than 250 μm to a feed dissolver where the sodium carbonate fine particles are mixed with fresh water and a recycled solution from less basic compartments of an electrodialyser to form a first production solution comprising sodium carbonate, said electrodialyser comprising alternating less basic and more basic compartments separated by each other by cationic membranes, the more basic compartments being delimited by the anionic faces of bipolar membranes on one side and by the cationic membranes on the other side;
• introducing the resulting first production solution into the less basic compartments of the electrodialyser;
• extracting a solution comprising sodium bicarbonate from the less basic compartments of the electrodialyser;
• extracting a solution comprising sodium hydroxide from the more basic compartments of the electrodialyser;
• extracting a part of the solution comprising sodium hydroxide as a second production solution, while remainder of the solution comprising sodium hydroxide is mixed with fresh water to form a first reaction solution that is sent back to the more basic compartments of the electrodialyser;
• mixing fresh water with the second production solution comprising sodium hydroxide to form a second reaction solution which is injected into a subterranean trona mine comprising sodium carbonate;
• extracting a produced solution comprising sodium carbonate from the trona mine and sent to an evaporator wherein sodium carbonate monohydrate crystals are formed;
• and
• removing a purge stream from the solution comprising sodium bicarbonate extracted from the less basic compartments to control impurities level, while remainder of the solution comprising sodium bicarbonate is fed back to the feed dissolver.