New Rare Earths Purification Process - BlackSwan

[blackswan]

I am excited to announce that I have a new refining process for rare earths.

This process, (Patent pending) produces pure elements utilizing a unique and straightforward liquid purification process. The novel aspect of our technology is its ability to run the reaction in a liquid medium, near to room temperature, in minutes. It may be able to replace the current processes, with cost and environmental benefits.

Note: I am not a chemist, so this is somewhat speculative.

I started with silicon; however this process is a general purification process which can be applied to rare earths. When we apply our purification process to polysilicon production, it starts with a reasonably pure commercial chemical, so applying it to raw bastnäsite ore, may be uneconomical due to the large quantity (over 90 %) of other materials in the ore. Laboratory experiments will be required to optimize where in the sequence our process can best be applied. I expect that our process would probably be able to be best applied to the later parts of the overall extraction and purification process, once the bulk of the other materials are removed by other methods. There may be further application of the rare earths separation methods to separate the various rare earths from one another.

Now is the right time for us to explore this application to rare earths.

 

[John]

Hi @blackswan

Sorry for the slow reply. We are about to relaunch this website. So big things coming soon.

Thanks for sharing this. Novel approaches to REE purification and separation are always of interest, especially anything that could reduce temperature, reagent intensity, or waste streams.

A couple of points that would help the community understand the potential application:

1. Process fundamentals:
   Are you able to share any detail on the underlying chemistry (even at a high level)? For example, is this based on complexation, redox cycling, phase-transfer mechanisms, or something else?
2. Scope of purity upgrade:
   You mentioned it works with “reasonably pure” feedstock in the silicon case. For REEs, most producers move from ore to concentrate to mixed rare earth carbonate/oxide before entering the separation stage. At which stage do you anticipate the process might be technically feasible?
3. Selectivity vs. group behavior:
   REE separation is governed by very small differences in ionic radii and complexation stability constants. Do you see your method having selectivity between light and heavy REEs, or is it more aligned to overall purification rather than separation?
4. Throughput and scalability:
   Running at near-ambient conditions is appealing, but commercial separation plants operate at substantial volumes. Any early thoughts on scalability or energy balance?
5. Validation path:
   You mentioned the concept is speculative pending laboratory work. Are you planning benchtop tests with real REE feedstock (e.g., bastnäsite, monazite, or MREC)? The community here would be keen to hear about any experimental data as it emerges.

Happy to keep the discussion going. There is strong interest here in any technology that could reduce reagent use, simplify flowsheets, or materially lower OPEX/footprint in the separation stage.

As always, if you want to reach out, please email me at john@rareearthexchanges.com