Resumen de BCGS Symposium: Minds gather in Canada for rare earths research
"It takes millions of years to produce a good deposit. The good news is that a rare earth flowsheet only takes 15 years to make," Niels Verbaan, principal metallurgist at SGS Canada Inc., a technical services consultancy, quipped.
"Once a deposit has been found and described by geologists, there is still much work to be done by metallurgists for an efficient flowsheet," Verbaan added, noting that there is little operating experience to be drawn on in the Western world.
"There are big risks with new tech when upscaling," Verbaan told IM. "However, MRT seems to be the most advanced and it's used in other industries," he concluded.
