Resumen de Phosphogypsum: : Another Russian rare earths pipe dream?

Industrial Minerals

• "In our early studies, we really thought the production of a rare earths concentrate was a good self-contained result," recalls Skygrad's founder, Yuri Sobol. "However, it turned out there was no market for this type of product in Russia and foreign producers were setting the prices of rare earths, so we had no control over what we could ask for the material on the international market." Skygrad therefore had to decide whether to abandon the project or attempt to separate the rare earths from concentrate - an entirely new research project. "Many expert chemists, who had previously worked on rare earths processing, tried to discourage us from embarking on this scheme, telling us that it was impossible to extract rare earths using centrifuges," says Sobol.

  Sobol claims that, once built, Skygrad's facility would be the first in Russia capable of separating rare earths concentrate on an industrial scale. At present, all Russia's domestic rare earths supply is mined from JSC Lovozero's Lovozero mine on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. The mine produces 6,000 tpa loparite ore, which is then processed at the OJSC Solikamsk Magnesium Plant in Russia's Perm region. This facility yields around 1,500 tpa rare earth