The fundamentals of rare earth flotation with ionic liquid collectors

近年来，稀土元素（REE）的需求激增，因为它们在许多高科技应用中的使用越来越多，包括高强度永磁体，电子显示器的磷光体，各种可再生能源技术的应用，以及金属中的合金剂。世界上已探明的稀土氧化物储量约1亿吨，分布在30多个国家。然而，目前全球97%的供应来自中国。中国经济的不断发展促使中国政府将稀土氧化物的年出口配额限制在约35，000吨，而到2015年，非中国的年需求预计将达到80，000吨。 该计划旨在尽可能消除这种知识的缺乏，并引入新的浮选方法，即通过使用离子液体作为捕收剂。 该计划的长期目标是开发选择性回收稀土矿物的有效方法，并启动基于离子液体的新系列浮选试剂的开发。离子液体是在低于100摄氏度的温度下熔融的板条，并且不同的官能团可以插入到结构中以促进从水性体系中去除各种金属离子。 该计划将开发功能化离子液体，以专门附着在矿物表面的稀土阳离子上，并将包括疏水组分，以附着在浮选槽中的气泡上。该计划专门研究稀土矿物的加工，但预计将有使用离子液体加工贱金属矿石的附带项目。在整个计划中，共有9名HQP将接受培训。 其中包括一名博士后研究员，两名博士生，一名工程硕士生和五名本科生研究员。

The demand for rare earth elements (REE) has spiked in recent years due to their increasing usage in numerous high-technology applications, including high strength permanent magnets, phosphors for electronic displays, applications in a variety of renewable energy technologies, and as alloying agents in metals.**There are approximately one hundred million tons of proven rare earth oxide reserves in the world, scattered across more than 30 countries. However, 97% of the world's supply currently originates in China. Increased development in China has prompted the Chinese government to limit yearly export quotas to approximately 35,000 tons of rare-earth oxides, while non-Chinese yearly demand is expected to reach 80,000 tons by the year 2015. This program aims to remove as much of this lack of knowledge as possible, and to introduce novel methods of flotation, namely through the use of ionic liquids as collectors. The long term goal of this program is to develop efficient methods of selectively recovering rare earth minerals, and to initiate the development of a new series of flotation reagents based upon ionic liquids.**Ionic liquids are slats that are molten at temperatures lower than 100 degrees Celsius, and different functional groups can be inserted into the structure to facilitate the removal of various metal ions from aqueous systems. This program will develop functionalised ionic liquids to attach specifically to rare earth cations on the mineral surface, and will include a hydrophobic component to attach to air bubbles in a flotation cell.**This program is investigating the processing of rare earth minerals specifically, but it is envisaged that there will be spin-off projects into processing base metal ores using ionic liquids.**Throughout this program, a total of nine HQP will be trained. These include one post-doctoral researcher, two PhD students, one MEng student and five undergraduate researchers.