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Minerals
Special Issues
Green and Efficient Recovery/Extraction of Rare Earth Resources
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Green and Efficient Recovery/Extraction of Rare Earth Resources

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 2071

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gaofeng Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Interests: clay mineral; mining; rare earth elements; ion-adsorption rare earth deposits; electrokinetics; adsorption; surfaces and interfaces
Dr. Yongqiang Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Interests: environmental geochemistry; water pollution control; biological nitrogen removal; rare earth mining tailings; wastewater treatment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rare earth elements (REEs) are critical and strategic components for the development of future green and low-carbon economies due to their fundamental roles in many clean and renewable energy technologies (e.g., solar panels, wind turbines, and hybrid vehicle batteries). At present, the global demand for REEs is continuously increasing. Nevertheless, the worldwide supply of REEs is limited, and mining REEs from natural resources has a low recovery rate and causes many environmental problems. Therefore, developing innovative methods for the green and efficient recovery of REEs is a key strategy for meeting the global increasing demand for REEs.

REEs are predominantly mined from mineral phase-type ores (e.g., the Bayan Obo rare earth ores) and ion-adsorption-type rare earth deposits (e.g., weathering crust). Due to their exhaustive exploitation, the natural repository for REEs is decreasing dramatically. Recovering REEs from secondary resources, such as fly ash, mine tailing, and electronic waste, is an alternative method of extraction.

This Special Issue is organized into three sections:

Section 1: Recovery/Mining of REEs from ion-adsorption rare earth deposits: Methods and case studies.
Section 2: Recovery/Extraction/Hydrometallurgy of REEs from mineral phase rare earth ores: Methods and case studies.
Section 3: Recovery/Extraction of REEs from secondary resources: Methods and case studies.

This Special Issue aims to discuss all methods for recovering REEs from various REE-carriers, including weathering crust, minerals, and secondary resources. All types of experimental, theoretical, and simulation studies are welcome.

Dr. Gaofeng Wang
Dr. Yongqiang Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • rare earth elements
  • recovery
  • extraction
  • mining

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3045 KiB  
Article
Transport Model of Rare Earth Elements in Weathering Crusts during Electrokinetic Mining
by Gaofeng Wang, Bowen Ling, Xiaoliang Liang, Jie Xu, Shichang Kang, Jingming Wei, Wei Tan, Runliang Zhu, Jianxi Zhu and Hongping He
Minerals 2024, 14(4), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14040360 - 29 Mar 2024
Viewed by 796
Abstract
Electrokinetic mining (EKM) is a novel method for rare earth element (REE) mining that can achieve green and efficient recovery of REEs. However, as yet, there is no accurate model for describing the electrokinetic transport of REEs in weathering crusts, and this hinders [...] Read more.
Electrokinetic mining (EKM) is a novel method for rare earth element (REE) mining that can achieve green and efficient recovery of REEs. However, as yet, there is no accurate model for describing the electrokinetic transport of REEs in weathering crusts, and this hinders the wider application of EKM. The conventional model fails to capture the microscale transport physics occurring in the nanochannels that exist ubiquitously in weathering crusts. Consequently, the existing models cannot distinguish the mobilities of different REEs. Here, we report a new model for a more faithful description of the electrokinetic transport of REEs in weathering crusts that considers the ionic size, which has previously been neglected. We reveal that the electrokinetic transport of heavy REEs (HREEs) is faster than that of light REEs (LREEs) in weathering crusts, which is contrary to the predictions of conventional models. Our model was validated experimentally by measurements of the electrokinetic transport of two LREEs (La and Sm) and an HREE (Er) in weathering crusts. The speed of electrokinetic transport follows the order Er > Sm > La. Our findings suggest that the ionic size is a non-negligible factor affecting the electrokinetic transport of REEs in weathering crusts containing nanochannels. This work offers a constitutive model to describe the electrokinetic transport of REEs in weathering crusts, which promotes both theoretical developments and practical applications of EKM. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green and Efficient Recovery/Extraction of Rare Earth Resources)
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15 pages, 7941 KiB  
Article
An Environmentally Friendly Sulfuric Acid Decomposition Strategy for Mixed Rare Earth Concentrate
by Shaochun Hou, Bo Zhang, Wenjun Li, Tuo Zhao, Zongyang Da and Chenghong Liu
Minerals 2024, 14(2), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14020185 - 09 Feb 2024
Viewed by 917
Abstract
A novel environmentally friendly one-step decomposition strategy for mixed rare earth concentrate of Bayan Obo in sulfuric acid solution was proposed in this work. In this process, more than 84% of bastnasite and monazite were decomposed in the leaching step at a temperature [...] Read more.
A novel environmentally friendly one-step decomposition strategy for mixed rare earth concentrate of Bayan Obo in sulfuric acid solution was proposed in this work. In this process, more than 84% of bastnasite and monazite were decomposed in the leaching step at a temperature lower than the boiling point of sulfuric acid solution. So, the dilapidation of sulfuric acid in this current proposed process will be reduced to a large extent. The stability region of rare earth ion in the RE(La, Ce, Nd)-F-P-SO4-H2O system at 170 °C has been proven through Eh-pH diagrams. The factors influencing decomposition of rare earth concentrate in this process were also investigated and the optimal leaching conditions were determined to be a leaching temperature of 170 °C with an ore/acid ratio of 1:5 (g/mL), a sulfuric acid concentrate of 75% and a leaching time of 80 min. The mineralogical changes occurring during the H2SO4 leaching process were investigated by X-ray diffraction and SEM-EDS. The analysis results showed that bastnasite and most of monazite had been decomposed, leaving only a small amount of monazite in the leaching residue. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green and Efficient Recovery/Extraction of Rare Earth Resources)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

1. Zhihong Tu et al.
2. Jie Xu et al.
3. Shichang Kang et al.
4. Guanghui Li et al.
5. Yongqiang Yang et al.
6. Gaofeng Wang et al.
7. Yingya Wang et al.
8. Lingbo Zhou et al.
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