Mining News: News Nuggets: SuperLig®-One pilot plant ready to separate Alaska rare earths

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. April 5 reported that pre-commissioning of the SuperLig®-One rare earth elements separation pilot plant is nearly complete, and the commissioning phase was scheduled to begin later in the week. The pre-commissioning included the testing of automation and fluid circuits; quality assurance certification of the SuperLig® resins to be used in the plant; analysis of the pregnant leach solution to be used during the commissioning phase of the plant; and testing of the process flow sheet. The pregnant leach solution to be used during the commissioning phase was produced from the Ucore’s Bokan-Dotson Ridge project in Southeast Alaska. The rare earth separation process includes four stages of separation. During the first stage, the tightly interlocked rare earths are separated as a group from the waste materials suspended in the leachate solution. Second, scandium, a valuable REE used in aluminum alloys for the aerospace sector, is separated from the other rare earths. Third, the light and heavy rare earths are separated. Finally, the most critical and valuable rare earths – terbium, europium and dysprosium – are separated into individual salts exceeding 99 percent purity. The remaining heavy REE solution, as well as the light REE solution will be retained for future work. Once each of these stages is tested sequentially, the pilot plant will undergo a continuous run of solution. “The successful completion of initial stress testing and pre-PLS certifications for SuperLig®-One is exciting to say the least,” said Jim McKenzie, president and CEO of Ucore. “Our objective now is the processing of the PLS at pilot scale, to be followed by early- stage blueprinting of our progress from pilot to production scale without delay.”

- Shane Lasley

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