Rare earth and thorium mineralogy and geochemistry at the Alces Lake property, Saskatchewan: Towards green mining

该申请要求NSERC参与资助计划提供资金，在萨斯喀彻温大学和Appia能源公司（安大略省多伦多）之间建立新的合作伙伴关系，以研究在萨斯喀彻温北部Alces湖财产上开采稀土元素（REE）的环保方法。由于稀土元素在现代技术中的广泛应用，如风力涡轮机、手机、电视、电脑和电动汽车，对稀土元素的需求一直在增加。在阿尔塞斯湖矿区开采高品位稀土矿，将使加拿大成为少数几个生产稀土矿的国家之一。然而，稀土矿床通常与钍（一种放射性元素）的含量升高有关。目前，将钍作为固体残渣倾倒在废石堆和矿山尾矿中是一种常见的做法。最近，人们对将钍用作核燃料的兴趣重新燃起。随着钍核燃料循环的出现，钍作为稀土矿开采的副产品为反应堆提供动力成为可能。拟议的研究将调查Alces Lake地产的四个新REE-Th区的矿物学和地球化学，这些矿物学和地球化学是由工业合作伙伴在2017年的现场活动中发现的。拟议研究的一个新颖方面是表征Alces湖REE- th矿石中的钍分布，这在一般REE矿床中仍然知之甚少，并且由于其可能出现在外来矿物中，因此在分析上具有挑战性。对Appia能源公司来说，与钍提取直接相关的拟议研究的好处是双重的：1)它将生产钍作为副产品，使Alces湖矿床的稀土开采更具成本效益；2)降低稀土开采的环境足迹，降低矿山尾矿的放射性。

This application requests funds from the NSERC Engage Grant Program to create a new partnership between the University of Saskatchewan and Appia Energy Corp. (Toronto, Ontario) to research an environmentally friendly approach to mining rare earth elements (REE) on the Alces Lake property, northern Saskatchewan. The demand for REE has been increasing due to its widespread use in modern technology such as wind turbines, cellphones, televisions, computers, and electric vehicles. Mining high grade REE ores at the Alces Lake property will allow Canada to join the small list of nations that produce REE. However, REE deposits are often associated with elevated contents of thorium, a radioactive element. At present it is a common practice to dump thorium as a solid residue in waste rock piles and mine tailings. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in thorium for its use as a nuclear fuel. Through the advent of the thorium nuclear fuel cycle, it is possible to power reactors with thorium as a by-product from REE mining. The proposed study will investigate the mineralogy and geochemistry of four new REE-Th zones at the Alces Lake property, discovered by the industrial partner in its 2017 field campaign. One novel aspect of the proposed research is the characterization of the thorium distribution in the REE-Th ores at Alces Lake, which remains poorly understood in REE deposits in general and is analytically challenging due to its possible occurrences in exotic minerals. The benefits of the proposed research with direct relevance to thorium extraction are two-fold for Appia Energy Corp.: 1) it will produce thorium as a by-product to make the REE mining of the Alces Lake deposit more cost effective; 2) it will lower the environmental footprint from REE mining and make the mine tailings less radioactive.