Toward Closing a Loophole: Recovering Rare Earth Elements from Uranium Metallurgical Process Tailings
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-020-04451-7 Ó 2020 The Author(s)
ADVANCES IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY OF LANTHANIDES
Toward Closing a Loophole: Recovering Rare Earth Elements from Uranium Metallurgical Process Tailings JAMES VAUGHAN ,1,6 KATE TUNGPALAN,2 ANITA PARBHAKAR-FOX WENG FU ,1 EMMA J. GAGEN ,4,5 PHILIP NTI NKRUMAH ,3 GORDON SOUTHAM ,4 ANTONY VAN DER ENT ,3 PETER D. ERSKINE ,3 PAUL GOW ,2 and RICK VALENTA 2
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1.—School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. 2.—W.H. Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. 3.—Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. 4.—School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. 5.—Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. 6.—e-mail: [email protected]
Rare earth elements are increasingly required for use in modern high-tech components, and primary production is necessary to meet the demand. Reprocessing legacy metallurgical tailings is advantageous, as the material has already been mined, beneficiated, upgraded, and contained in a single accessible location. The Mary Kathleen uranium process tailings in Queensland, Australia, provides an opportunity for this. The geology and historic process methods for the Mary Kathleen uranium mine are described along with known characteristics of the tailings material. Conventional and alternative REE processing options are reviewed, including phyto-extraction and other bio-technologies. Approaches to determining the appropriate pathway forward for Mary Kathleen tailings are then discussed.
INTRODUCTION The demand for rare earth elements (REE) has increased significantly over the last decade, with global rare earth oxide (REO) production increasing markedly over the last 2 years from 132,000 t in 2017 to 210,000 t in 2019.1 This production increase is drive by the need for REE in high-technology equipment, particularly in the low-carbon energy industry, but also in auto catalysts and digital technologies. For example, neodymium (Nd), dysprosium (Dy), and praseodymium (Pr) are utilized to manufacture permanent magnets that can withstand high temperatures, and Pr, gadolinium (Gd), europium (Eu) and erbium (Er) are used as nanoparticle-based materials to enhance power conversion efficiencies. Lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), and Nd are commonly used as stabilizers in catalytic compounds (e.g., automotive catalysts) and Eu, terbium (Tb), and yttrium (Y) to manufacture video screens.2,3 (Received August 5, 2020; accepted October 16, 2020)
REE are mined from a variety of mineral deposit types located throughout the world. The majority of global REE production comes from China, which produced 132,000 t of REO (63% of the 2019 global total production), with the USA producing 12%, Myanmar 10.5%, and A
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