The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Adds demo plant separation stages to produce magnet REEs Metal Tech News – July 13, 2022
RapidSX is a technological upgrade to the traditional solvent extraction method of separating rare earth elements.
A rendering of the 51-stage RapidSX demonstration plant being developed at KPM's facilities in Ontario, Canada.
Following the positive results from an independent technical review received early this year, Ucore Rare Metals Inc. has decided to expand the rare earths separation capacity of its RapidSX demonstration plant to include stages that will produce the rare earths for the powerful magnets that go into electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, computer hard drives, and a long list of other modern devices.
Developed by Innovation Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Ucore, RapidSX is essentially a faster and more environmentally sound technological upgrade to the solvent extraction method that has been the standard for separating rare earths for more than four decades.
Independent testing has shown that the innovative column-based RapidSX platform can separate rare earths nearly 10 times faster in an area that is about one-third the size required for the mixer-settler units used for traditional SX separation.
"Ucore is in the unique position of having access to one of the world's most advanced and efficient solvent extraction-based REE separation technologies," said Ucore Rare Metals COO Mike Schrider.
51-stage demo plant
Following the independent study results, the RapidSX development team decided to expand the original 18-stage demonstration plant to 51 stages. The extra stages will allow the enhanced demo plant to separate off four of the rare earths used to produce the neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets used in EV motors – praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium.
This expanded RapidSX demo plant is being developed at a 5,000-square-foot commercialization and development facility at the Ontario, Canada headquarters of Ucore's laboratory partner, Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc.
"IMC's solvent extraction process, RapidSX, has different components that allow us to Westernize this standard chemical process so that 'technology risk' is eliminated while in compliance with North American environmental and worker safety standards," said Boyd Davis, a principal at Kingston Process Metallurgy. "The cellular design is scalable and allows for rapid production capacity expansion in a safe and responsible manner."
Leveraging this cellular design, the 51 stages of the upscaled demo plant provide Ucore the opportunity to achieve its broader objectives in 2022, which will position the company to accelerate the commercial deployment of RapidSX.
"The logical pathway was to expand the facility now so that we are ready to make the leap to commercialization within the Strategic Metals Complexes by early next year, along with the benefit of starting product qualification trials with our growing list of potential North American customers," said Schrider.
With 51 processing stages, the RapidSX demo plant is expected to be able to:
• Accept feedstocks from multiple sources, including planned light and heavy rare earth materials for commercial production at future strategic metals complexes.
• Process tens of metric tons of mixed rare earth concentrate per year.
• Produce rare earth products for prospective metal and alloy makers, as well as those that meet original equipment manufacturer qualifications.
• Carry out all the RapidSX splits required to produce individual praseodymium, neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium.
Preparing for SMC No. 1
Ucore says the RapidSX development team is working with the company's upstream feedstock suppliers and is planning demo plant product qualification trials to commence by the end of the year.
In parallel, the companies are conducting a techno-economic assessment and engineering data transfer of all activities at the commercialization center in support of Ucore's planned RapidSX deployment in strategic metals complexes.
To help facilitate the design and engineering work, Ucore is continuing its engagement with Mech-Chem Associates, Inc. to develop the specific engineering requirements for all process phases of the planned SMCs. This work will continue into 2023 and is scheduled to conclude with developing a contract design package suitable to execute a contract for designing and building SMC No. 1, which is expected to be built near the port town of Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska.
Ucore expects to begin producing rare earth oxides at SMC No. 1 in 2024.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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