Developing innovative processes to recover scandium and refractory metals from bauxite residue

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This proposal describes the plan for developing environmentally sustainable and performant processes to valorize industrial waste to high value metals that are in increasing demand. More specifically, it will investigate the extraction of scandium from the bauxite residue produced in Rio Tinto's alumina production plant (Vaudreuil Works) located in Jonquiere, Canada. The proposed valorization process also produces refractory metals in high demand, such as titanium, niobium, and high purity pig iron, which makes the process more economical, robust, and attractive. The successful completion of the proposed research would result in process development and innovations to transform an otherwise waste stream to valuable strategic materials for the next generation of energy-efficient products. The four-year deliverable is lab-scale innovative and green processes to utilize bauxite residue to produce high value products. The process will consist of three components: 1) innovative smelting process based on carbothermic reduction to reduce the iron content of the bauxite residue, 2) leaching processes based upon acid baking water leaching to extract valuable metals from the smelting slag, and 3) green solid-liquid extraction to separate value metals from the leachate. The proposed project is highly beneficial for Canadians, as it delivers significant environmental and economic benefits by resolving the bottleneck for strategic materials supply through 1) industrial waste valorization, and 2) production of valuable metals required for the clean-energy technologies. The proposed project will further improve Canada's competitiveness in the amount of resources for strategic materials and its technical edge in extraction and processing of these materials. In addition, top high quality personnel will be trained for careers in the Canadian Minerals sector.