China develops new technique to mine rare earths
2023-09-18 11:56:27 [Print]
Chinese scientists have developed a new method to extract rare earths from weathering crust ore, a technological breakthrough they say can achieve a 30%increase in recovery rate, a 70% reduction in impurities and a 70% decrease in mining time.
Ion-adsorption rare-earth deposits are a main source of heavy REE resources in China. These deposits are currently mined via the ammonium-salt-based leaching technique, which leads to environmental damage with a low recovery rate and long leaching time.
To address the problems, a research team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences has designed an innovative mining technique called electrokinetic mining (EKM), which showed significantly higher performances compared with the current mining method and would enable the green and efficient recovery of REEs from weathering crusts.
With seven patents for invention, the new mining technique has been used in a demonstration project with 5,000 tonnes of soil. The research team said further efforts will be made to accelerate the industrial application of the relevant results.
Ion-adsorption rare-earth deposits are a main source of heavy REE resources in China. These deposits are currently mined via the ammonium-salt-based leaching technique, which leads to environmental damage with a low recovery rate and long leaching time.
To address the problems, a research team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences has designed an innovative mining technique called electrokinetic mining (EKM), which showed significantly higher performances compared with the current mining method and would enable the green and efficient recovery of REEs from weathering crusts.
With seven patents for invention, the new mining technique has been used in a demonstration project with 5,000 tonnes of soil. The research team said further efforts will be made to accelerate the industrial application of the relevant results.
