A Detailed Assessment of Global Rare Earth Element Resources: Opportunities and Challenges

Weng, Zhehan; Jowitt, Simon M.; Mudd, Gavin Mark; Haque, Nawshad

doi:10.2113/econgeo.110.8.1925

Cited by 326 publications

(162 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Rare-earth elements are incorporated in accessory minerals in various rocks, but the most commercially significant sources, as reviewed by Kanazawa and Kamitani (2006) and more recently described in the comprehensive assessment by Weng et al (2015) are presented below: (1) Bastnäsite, (REE)(CO 3 )F, is a fluorocarbonate mineral containing 65-75 wt.% light REO and accounts for more than 80% of global REO production. The two major sources in the world for lanthanides are bastnäsite deposits at Mountain Pass, California (USA, owned by Molycorp Inc. -devoted solely to REE production, and Bayan-Obo, Inner Mongolia (China) -mined primarily for iron ore and REE as a by-product (also containing monazite).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Up to 80-90% of the adsorbed REE are hosted by the strongly weathered layer (B), whereas <15% are found in the semi-weathered layer (C). Depending on the nature of the original host rocks, the general components of the weathered ores are kaolinite, halloysite and muscovite, with a typical composition (as wt.%) of ∼70% SiO 2 , 15% Al 2 O 3 , 3-5% K 2 O, 2-3% Fe 2 O 3 and less than 0.5% of CaO, MgO and other elements Weng et al, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…While at the present time China is the only country to actively pursue and develop this type of resource to commercially produce REE, recent geological surveys (summarized by Weng et al, 2015) have led to the discovery and investigation of similar ion-adsorption clay deposits in South America (Rocha et al, 2013) and Africa (TRE Project, 2014) located in the same warm sub-tropical and tropical weathering areas.…”

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A review of the potential for rare-earth element resources from European red muds: examples from Seydişehir, Turkey and Parnassus-Giona, Greece

et al. 2016

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Rare-earth elements (REE) are viewed as 'critical metals' due to a complex array of production and political issues, most notably a near monopoly in supply from China. Red mud, the waste product of the Bayer process that produces alumina from bauxite, represents a potential secondary resource ofREE. Karst bauxite deposits represent the ideal source material forREE-enriched red mud as the conditions during formation of the bauxite allow for the retention ofREE. TheREEpass through the Bayer Process and are concentrated in the waste material. Millions of tonnes of red mud are currently stockpiled in onshore storage facilities across Europe, representing a potentialREEresource. Red mud from two case study sites, one in Greece and the other in Turkey, has been found to contain an average of ∼1000 ppm totalREE, with an enrichment of light over heavyREE. Although this is relatively low grade when compared with typical primaryREEdeposits (Mountain Pass and Mount Weld up to 80,000 ppm), it is of interest because of the large volumes available, the cost benefits of reprocessing waste, and the low proportion of contained radioactive elements. This work shows that ∼12,000 tonnes ofREEexist in red mud at the two case study areas alone, with much larger resources existing across Europe as a whole.

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A review of the potential for rare-earth element resources from European red muds: examples from Seydişehir, Turkey and Parnassus-Giona, Greece

et al. 2016

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“…There fore, the Kupfer schiefer se ries, due to rel a tively low REE con cen tra tions com pared to doc u mented REE de pos its, does not seem to be a pro spec tive source, bar ring the ap pear ance of eco nomic need, par tic u larly in parts of the ox i dized ar eas, in which REE co ex ist spa tially with gold and PGE. The REE de pos its as so ci ated with black shale are ex tremely rare (Gieré, 1996;Long et al, 2012;Jaireth et al, 2014;Simandl, 2014), ex cept ing a few polymetallic black shales (Weng et al, 2015), phosphorite-bear ing shales (e.g., Cruse et al, 2000), black slates (Loukola --Ruskeeniemi and Lahtinen, 2013) or shales with IOCG hy drother mal min er ali sa tion (Simandl, 2014). REE in sev eral other shale-re lated polymetallic de pos its oc cur as ac com pa ny ing com mod i ties (e.g., Jiang et al, 2006;Zanin et al, 2010), however, there is lit tle in for ma tion about eco nomic util ity.…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The likely pres ence of rare earths within the struc ture of var i ous REE-bear ing min eral phases, that are dif fi cult to pro cess, makes it dif fi cult to con sider the mode of extrac tion, recoverability, and re lated costs (Long et al, 2012;Weng et al, 2015). The con sid er ing of the Kupferschiefer se ries as a pro spective source of REE (even in the case of ef fi cient re cov ery technol ogy) is not cur rently jus ti fied from an eco nomic point of view.…”

Section: Fig 10 Sche Matic Sec Tion Of the Kupferschiefer Se Ries Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Controls on the distribution of rare earth elements in the Kupferschiefer series of SW Poland

Oszczepalski¹,

Chmielewski²,

Mikulski³

2016

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1 Pol ish Geo log i cal In sti tute -Na tional Re search In sti tute, Rakowiecka 4, 00-975 Warszawa, Po land Oszczepalski, S., Chmielewski, A., Mikulski, S.Z., 2016. Con trols on the dis tri bu tion of rare earth el e ments in the Kupferschiefer se ries of SW Po land. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 60 (4): 811-826, doi: 10.7306/gq.1325 This study deals with the spa tial dis tri bu tion and the PAAS-nor mal ized pat terns of rare earth el e ments (REE) stud ied by ICP-MS in the Kupferschiefer se ries of SW Po land. The most char ac ter is tic fea ture is a pro gres sive en rich ment in REE content (in clud ing Y and Sc) out ward from the rocks with py ritic and Pb-Zn min er al isa tion, across the rocks with cop per min er alisa tion, to wards the ox i dized (Rote Fäule) ar eas. The same trend can also be ob served with re spect to LREE, MREE and HREE. Whereas REE dis tri bu tion di a grams for shales with py rite and Pb-Zn min er al isa tion are al most flat, di a grams for shales with he ma tite and cop per min er al isa tion are con vex-up ward and the stron gest con vex ity is at trib uted to the tran si tion from hematitic al ter ation to cop per-rich rocks. REE dis tri bu tion di a grams nor mal ized to PAAS show strong MREE en richment rel a tive to LREE and HREE, which is typ i cally the high est in the he ma tite zone, lower in shale with cop per min er al isation, and the low est in shales with Pb-Zn and py rite min er al isa tion. The sys tem atic in crease in the con cen tra tion of REE to wards the Rote Fäule, and the strong en rich ment in MREE in the tran si tion zone are in dic a tive of vari able in ten sity of leaching and for ma tion of the REE en rich ments (in clud ing MREE) by MREE>HREE>LREE flu ids, as ev i denced by the MREE-enriched sig na tures. Over print ing of sec ond ary en rich ments over the orig i nal REE pat tern due to re dis tri bu tion along the path ways of ex pand ing flu ids are pos tu lated to ac count for the ap par ent dif fer ences in the dis tri bu tion and con cen tra tion of REE (in clud ing the MREE-en riched trend) be tween the ox i dized rocks, cop per-bear ing rocks, and re duced lithologies bar ren in cop per.

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Protecting the environment and public health from rare earth mining

et al. 2016

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As increasing demand for green energy and high-tech devices grows, so does the rising prospecting of rare earth metals required for their production. Protecting the environment and public health from rare earth element (REE) mining as well as emerging pollutants is urgently required to achieve sustainable development. This study mapped Earth's hidden REE deposits to identify potential contamination hotspots with the aim of preventing its deleterious effects on the environment. We worry that there would be widespread tailing facilities concomitant with serious pollutions, such as the Bayan Obo tailings site, and argue that a tradeoff between the underground REE exploration and environment conservation should be reached as soon as possible.On a global scale, demand for rare earth elements (REE) is ever increasing, leading to rapid growth of REE production and consumption (Figure 1) because REE compounds are extensively used in modern high-tech, agriculture, and medicine products [Migaszewski and Gałuszka, 2015]. For example, REE are peppered throughout smartphones, permanent magnets, hybrid engines, wind turbines, fluorescent bulbs, solar panels etc., making them more sophisticated and small in size [Hurst, 2010;Migaszewski and Gałuszka, 2015]. The intensive geological prospecting for REE ore deposits, however, causes extreme damage to the environment [e.g., Huang, 2011;Liu, 2013]. REE ores and their mining/processing are chemically and mineralogically complex and commonly radioactive. Nearly all rare earth ores contain the radioactive elements thorium (Th) and uranium (U). For example, monazite contains relatively high amounts of ThO 2 and U 3 O 8 in the range of 0-200,000 and 0-160,000 ppm, respectively; xenotime contains a similar range (0-50,000 ppm) of ThO 2 and U 3 O 8 [Jordens et al., 2013]. REE processing often produces appreciable amounts of waste and pollution-intensive materials, including tailings, which are mixtures of crushed rocks and processing fluids from mills and/or concentrators. These REE tailings usually contain potentially hazardous contaminants, which are accumulated from rocks and additional extraction regents, because extracting a high grade of REE often involves many steps of processing/smelting/refining and requires the substantial addition of acids, alkaline, and organic solvents [e.g., Huang, 2011; Kumari et al., 2015 and Supporting Information]. In particular, the frequent occurrence of some radionuclide residues (e.g., Th, U, Rn) and their radioactive rays (e.g., alpha, beta, gamma rays) in REE tailings may also pose a radioactive threat to animal and human health. The adverse outcomes of exposure to elevated REE concentrations include growth inhibition, cytogenetic effects, and organ-specific toxicity to abiotic and biotic systems [e.g., Zhang et al., 2000;Pagano et al., 2015]. Therefore, one of the priorities for a feasible and effective facility must be to proactively isolate the REE mining waste so as to prevent it from entering groundwater, rivers, lakes, soil and air...

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A Detailed Assessment of Global Rare Earth Element Resources: Opportunities and Challenges

Cited by 326 publications

References 52 publications

A review of the potential for rare-earth element resources from European red muds: examples from Seydişehir, Turkey and Parnassus-Giona, Greece

A review of the potential for rare-earth element resources from European red muds: examples from Seydişehir, Turkey and Parnassus-Giona, Greece

Controls on the distribution of rare earth elements in the Kupferschiefer series of SW Poland

Protecting the environment and public health from rare earth mining

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