Application of Supercritical Fluid Extraction to extract and recover Rare Earth Elements

By means of the RFP, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is seeking proposals from bidders for:

1.2.1 The objective of this project is to have a third-party (hereafter referred to as the ‘contractor’) evaluate the SCFE technology using CO2 as the solvent with TBP/HNO3 adduct as the chelating agent for its potential to extract rare earth elements from mineral samples. Three mineral samples will be used as feeds for this project, namely a mineral concentrate, a pre-treated mineral concentrate, and a leach residue. Supercritical CO2 containing TBP/HNO3 complex would be used to extract REE directly from the solid matrices. The extraction results on the three feeds will be analyzed and compared in order to understand the REE extraction achievable from each. Parameters that effect the extraction recovery and kinetics will also be investigated.