Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The rare earth elements (REEs) which are metals with silvery colors are fifteen lanthanide elements in the periodic table with atomic numbers of 57 to 71 as well as yttrium and scandium with atomic numbers of 21 and 39, respectively. These elements are essential ingredients in many advanced and high tech products, for example, in electronics, petroleum and clean energy industries. Human's life in civilized societies is undoubtedly meaningless without having access to modern and advanced products which require REEs.Demand for REEs is expected to expand by 9% to 15% per year until 2015. China holds about 36% of global REEs' reserve, but it produces over 95% of these elements. In other words, recovery of REEs has been not known in the rest of the world. On the other hand, China has made new policies to restrict exports of REEs to outside. This trend of increase in demand and shortage in supply has caused dramatic increase in REEs price since 2010. Therefore, it has been understood by, especially, developed countries that this reliance on Chinese imports should be declined. However, recovery of rare earth elements from the corresponding ores is noticeably challenging due to special characteristics of the REE bearing minerals and similarity between rare earth elements in terms of physical and chemical properties. Canada is a country with huge potential to be a world leader in REEs production because of its significant REE deposits. This proposal is about development of a new process for recovery of REEs from bastanasite and monazite minerals which are the most abundant REE bearing minerals in the world. The research team includes professors from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, McGill University and Laval University as well as two specialists from IAMGOLD Corporation. The proposed process includes physical beneficiation for concentrate production, concentrate thermal cracking to gain high grade rare earth oxides and individual separation of the rare earth elements.