Rare Earth Elements’ Processing; Current and Emerging Technologies, and

Evolving needs within the Rare Earth Device Manufacturing Sector

Presented by Jack LiftonTechnology Metals Research, LLC

jacklifton@aol.comRes Metallica Symposium“The Rare Earth Elements”

May 23,2012Aula van de`Tweede Hoofdwet

K.U. Leuven, Thermotechnical InstituteLeuven, Belgium

The place of the Rare Earths at “value as mined and concentrated”Mechanically Concentrated rare earth ores are the lowest value point in the supply chain

At the mine, as defined on the previous page, the toal value of the rare earths was estimated to be just 15/100 of 1 % of the total value of all global metal production in 2010.

Rare Earth Elements’ Processing; Current and Emerging Technologies,

and evolving needs within the Manufacturing Sector

• The SUPPLY CHAIN for any manufactured product made of metal or based on the electronic properties of a metal begins with a PRODUCING MINE not with an ore deposit.

• A MINE is an ORE DEPOSIT from which metal values can be recovered ECONOMICALLY, SAFELY, and LEGALLY.

• For rare metals such as the RARE EARTHS grade is NOT automatically the determining factor for economic recovery.

• The most important factor for the economic recovery of the rare earths from an ore deposit is the proof that the technologies exist, and are applicable to the particular ore body, that will enable the contained rare earths to be separated from each other as high purity compounds that can be turned into high purity metals at a cost economically competitive with those of existing suppliers.

• The initial grade of the ore matters, because it may well determine whether or not the ore can be sufficiently concentrated mechanically to allow a known extraction technology to recover sufficient metal values for the above noted separation and purification technologies to be economically competitive.

• The success of an extraction technology in recovering a high percentage of the contained metal values from a mechanically beneficiated “concentrate” is traditionally known as a “metallurgy,” but, by itself it is only necessary but not sufficient to determine the economic viability of a rare earth mine.

So, How do we add value to mechanically beneficiated rare earth ores?

1. Extract total metal values2. Separate and purify the Individual rare earth elements3. Reduce the purified separated individual metals to high purity

metals4. Alloy the metals5. Manufacture components from the alloysEach of the above steps is most often today, outside of China as well as

within, a separate business,each of which businesses has its own technical problems. It is the pricing at the conclusion of step 3 above that is most often mistakenly used to value the output of a mixed concentrate at the mine.

EXPLORATION

MINING

PROCESSING

SEPARATION

METAL MAKING

BY-PRODUCT SALES

REO SALES

ALLOY PROD’N

• A rare earth mine alone is not of much use to a magnet maker

• Enterprise profitability increases with each stage of processing

• Graphic Courtesy of Great Western Minerals Group, Ltd

RE METAL SALES

ALLOY SALES

6

An Integrated Production Model with Value Added Product SalesPoints shown on the right

MAGNET MAKERS

Rare Earth Elements’ Processing; Current and Emerging Technologies,

and evolving needs within the Manufacturing Sector,

• A workshop in Washington, DC entitled: EU-Japan-US Workshop on Critical Materials R&D (on October 4,5, 2011) addressed what I call the separation issue in the following agenda:

Workshop B: Resource efficiency: production, reuse, recovery, recycling > Session B1: Materials and processes for environmentally sound, economical separation of rare earths in diverse ore bodies and recycling streams (Tuesday, October 4, 2011 15:00-18:00) >

• Organic solvents > • Supercritical solvents > • Membranes > • Biological processes > • Ion exchange

Rare Earth Elements’ Processing; Current and Emerging Technologies,

and evolving needs within the Manufacturing Sector,

• The next two slides are:• 1. A view of a solvent exchange facility in

Baotou, China, and• 2. A (Solid Phase Exchange) column used to

separate and purify REEs.• A bench-top SPE separation system

Rare Earth Elements’ Processing; Current and Emerging Technologies,

and evolving needs within the Manufacturing Sector,

• In Every Known Case of North American REE deposits they are associated with radioactive nuisance elements and/or other metallic elements such as Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, and Fe, which may add value to the mine’s output. The most challenging of the nuisance elements are the radioactive ones, which are almost universally present in hard rock rare earth deposits globally.

• In the fowwing example in order to ultimately produce the desired rare earth metal products, all of the elements first need to be separated from the “nuisance” metals Fe, Th, and U. Second, the rare earth elements need to be separated into classes of elements. Third, separation into purified individual element products will give maximum value for the mine.

• These objectives can be accomplished with circuits of chelating ion exchange columns (SPE columns) that effect the separation of metals into classes with similar chemical properties.

REE chlorides

La purification column

Water LaCl3 NaCl

REECl3 Separation ofCe, La, Pr, Nd, Eu, Dy, Tb

Chelating column

Ce purification column

Water REECl3 Ce(OH)4 NaCl

0.35% HCl10% Na2CO3

Acid recycle

Pr+Nd+Eu+Dy+TbCl3

Water PrCl3 Pr+Nd+Eu+Dy+TbCl3raffinate

Dy +TbCl3

Chelating column

Water PrCl3Pr+Nd+Eu+Dy+TbCl3

raffinateDy +TbCl3

REECl3 Separation (cont’d)

Pr Chelating column

Water PrCl3Nd+Eu+Dy+TbCl3

raffinateDy +TbCl3

Water Dy+TbCl3raffinate

TbCl3

Nd Chelating column (3 times)

Water NdCl3Eu+Dy+TbCl3

raffinateDy +TbCl3

Eu Chelating column (3 times)

EuCl3

Chelating column (3 X)

Water TbCl3DyCl3

Dy +TbCl3raffinate

Rare Earth Metals Production

• A. Separated rare earths, typically, as carbonates are changed to halides such as chlorides for

• 1. Electrolysis of molten salts (such as halides), or fluorides for

• 2. Metallothermic reduction (Schmidt-Geschneidner Process)

Rare Earth Product Manufacturing

• Example: Sintered Neodymium-Iron-Boron type of rare earth permanent magnet

• The procedure tabulated below is in outline form and many details of quality control and safe handling procedures are left out for brevity:

Hydrogen Decrepitation: Sintered NdFeB Magnets Multi-Step Process

19

High-value recovered magnet powders

1. Used as a primary alloy feedstock

1. Used as a primary alloy feedstock

2. Processed for re-sintering into commodity grade magnets

2. Processed for re-sintering into commodity grade magnets

Critical Minerals for the Clean Energy and High Technology Industries 2012 and beyond-The EU Perspective

Recent Dynamics in the Rare Earth Sector