Process for producing sodium carbonate and/or sodium bicarbonate from an ore mineral comprising sodium bicarbonate

A process to produce sodium carbonate and/or sodium bicarbonate from an ore mineral comprising sodium bicarbonate, comprising:

• introducing a production solution comprising sodium carbonate into less basic compartments of an electrodialyser comprising alternating less basic and more basic adjacent compartments separated from each other by cationic membranes, the more basic compartments being delimited by anionic faces of bipolar membranes on one side and by the cationic membranes on the other side;
• optionally extracting a solution comprising sodium bicarbonate from the less basic compartments;
• producing a solution comprising sodium hydroxide into the more basic compartments, by combination of flux of sodium ions crossing the cationic membrane and flux of hydroxyl ions crossing the anionic face of the bipolar membranes;
• extracting the solution comprising sodium hydroxide from the more basic compartments of the electrodialyser and using such solution to constitute a reaction solution;
• putting the reaction solution into contact with the mineral ore comprising sodium bicarbonate in order to form a solution comprising sodium carbonate;
• and
• dividing the solution comprising sodium carbonate into a part which is used to constitute said production solution and a remaining part which constitutes a produced solution.