Scientists in China have created a more environmentally friendly method for extracting rare earth metals.
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Based on electric fields, the novel method has achieved an “unprecedented” rare earth recovery rate of 95 percent, while reducing mining time by 70 percent and reaching electricity savings of 60 percent.
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“Rare earth elements, especially heavy rare earth elements, are crucial facilitators of the swift transition to a low-carbon economy,” the team from the CAS Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry stated in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability on January 6.
This category includes devices that either reduce pollutant emissions from cars, such as catalytic converters and batteries,
Although rare earth metals play a crucial role in the development of low-carbon technologies, their supply is restricted due to their “disastrous” environmental record resulting from mining operations.
Traditional mining involves injecting significant amounts of highly concentrated ammonium-salt solutions into weathered soil layers to extract the elements, which can result in the release of hazardous emissions, water pollution, and soil deterioration.
They have begun exploiting new mining sites in southern China since 2018, further affecting the supply.
The research team previously proposed an electrokinetic mining (EKM) technique for extracting rare earth elements and have now demonstrated its large-scale application capability after experimenting with it at a mining site in Meizhou, Southern China.
Under the influence of an electric field generated by electrodes, the rare earth elements are drawn towards a collection well for recovery. Leaching agents are still employed in the process, but at a substantially decreased amount.
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Groundwater quality around the site during mining remained consistent over four months following the implementation of their method, implying no leakage took place during the trial.
Achieves a recovery rate of only 40 to 60 percent.
When the EKM method was employed, the efficiency of recovering rare earth elements reached 95.5 per cent within 60 days, compared to around 15 per cent recovery with traditional leaching processes over the same time period, according to the team.
This conventional method also results in the leaching of other metal elements, which subsequently requires additional costs for purification and separation.
The team designed a new electrode made from plastic to build an environment that discourages corrosion while maintaining high conductivity levels.
Although the production cost of extracting 1 tonne of ore using the new process is slightly higher than traditional methods, the team observed that the cost is approximately equivalent, indicating that it is economically viable.
Compared with the traditional method, the EKM approach leads to higher electricity-related expenses, but significantly lowers the costs linked to chemical agents.
The team suggested that “the production cost of the conventional technique is approximately three times that of the EKM technique”.
The use of electrokinetics presents a vast potential for more environmentally friendly mining operations and contributes to a move towards an economy based on lower carbon emissions.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post, the leading news outlet covering China and Asia news.
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