Technospheric mining of rare earth materials from red mud - by-product of the Bayer process

从拜耳法副产品赤泥中开采稀土材料的技术圈

• 批准号: 499708-2016
• 负责人: Azimi, Gisele
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=607609
• 关键词: Technospheric; mining; rare; earth; materials

Rare earth elements (REEs) are among the strategic materials that are essential for the production of many high-tech products. The demand for rare earths is increasing fast; therefore their future availability is a major issue. In recent years, new efforts have been started to extract these elements from secondary sources including stocks of landfilled industrial process residues. One of the main REE containing residues is red mud, which is the residue of the bauxite processing in the Bayer process. During this process, the iron and titanium minerals remain unchanged; therefore all the REEs are separated into the residue. Rio Tinto is one of the global leaders in the aluminum industry. It has sizeable red mud stock piles near the aluminum plants. The current proposal will involve the collaboration of my research group at the University of Toronto and Rio Tinto, and the main goal is to investigate the feasibility of recovering REEs from Rio Tinto's red mud using hydrometallurgical leaching processes. The proposed project will benefit Canada, as it helps Canadian producer satisfy their demand for rare earth materials. The proposed research on red mud waste valorization has a potential for commercialization, and we will look at the scaling-up possibilities and implementation by Rio Tinto and other aluminum production companies.

稀土元素是生产许多高科技产品必不可少的战略材料之一。对稀土的需求正在快速增长，因此其未来的可用性是一个主要问题。近年来，人们开始作出新的努力，从二次来源，包括填埋的工业加工残留物中提取这些元素。含稀土的主要残渣之一是赤泥，它是拜耳法中铝土矿加工的残渣。在此过程中，铁和钛矿物保持不变，因此所有的稀土元素都被分离到残渣中。力拓集团是全球铝业的领导者之一。它在铝厂附近有相当大的赤泥库存。目前的提案将涉及我在多伦多大学和力拓的研究小组的合作，主要目标是调查使用湿法冶金浸出工艺从力拓的赤泥中回收稀土元素的可行性。拟议的项目将有利于加拿大，因为它有助于加拿大生产商满足他们对稀土材料的需求。拟议的赤泥废物价值化研究具有商业化的潜力，我们将研究扩大规模的可能性以及力拓和其他铝生产公司的实施情况。