Mining News: News Nuggets: SuperLig-One pilot plant recovers scandium from Bokan Mountain
Ucore Rare Metals Inc. May 24 reported that a SuperLig®-One rare earth elements separation pilot plant at its Bokan Mountain - Dotson Ridge project in Southeast Alaska has separated nearly pure scandium from other minerals found in the deposit. Scandium is a highly valued REE used in making advanced aluminum alloys. Scandium imparts added strength, increased corrosion resistance, greater heat tolerance, and improved weldability to aluminum alloys. Its electrical and heat-stabilizing qualities also make it desirable for use in the production of solid oxide fuel cells. The separation of scandium marks the second stage of testing of the pilot plant. In the initial stage, the SuperLig-One plant created 99 percent pure REE by separating them from impurity metals in a pregnant leach solution derived from Bokan. In this second stage, more than 99 percent of the scandium was removed from the other REE in the pregnant leach solution; and the purity of the scandium recovered is greater than 99 percent. The purpose of this stage of the process is to completely remove scandium from the solution without removing any of the other REE, preserving the value of the rare earth-bearing solution as it advances to subsequent separation circuits. Ucore said the efficient separation of scandium early in the process distinguishes the molecular separation technology being used in the pilot test from less selective legacy technologies, such as solvent extraction and ion exchange. “Scandium is an increasingly high-profile and extremely high-value technology metal,” said Ucore President and CEO Jim McKenzie. “Much like lithium, scandium is considered a clean-technology metal with enormous development potential.” In the next stage of testing, the SuperLig®-One plant will separate light REE (lanthanum to neodymium, plus yttrium) from heavy rare earths (samarium to lutetium). In the final stage, heavy rare earths will be separated into individual critical REE. Upon completion of all four stages, the pilot plant is expected to produce terbium and europium that exceed 99 percent purity as well as dysprosium at 99.99 percent purity. The remaining solutions, containing heavy and light REE, will be retained for future separations. After confirmation testing of each stage of operation, the plant will undergo a continuous run of rare earth-bearing solution. SuperLig-One, which was designed and constructed by Utah-based IBC Advanced Technologies Inc., employs the highly-selective MRT process to isolate rare earth elements suspended in a solution. Ucore and IBC plan to jointly develop processes with the capability of separating a host of technology metals. “Our intent is to offer customized separation solutions across a host of technology metals,” McKenzie continued. “These applications include SuperLig products tailored to metals such as REE, platinum group metals, Li (lithium), Co (cobalt), W (tungsten) and many more.”
- Shane Lasley
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