The Institution
The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is Canada’s second largest Research and Technology Organization. With more than 340 employees, $75 million in annual revenue and 72 years of RD&D experience. SRC provides services and products to its 1,400 clients in 23 countries around the world.
The Achievement
It is well-known that Saskatchewan has the world’s richest uranium deposits, but you might be surprised to learn that they also contain Rare Earth Elements (REEs).
More than 80 per cent of the REEs found in uranium deposits are heavy REEs (HREEs). These elements, which include gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, erbium and ytterbium, have superior energy and magnetic properties compared to light REEs. The current demand for HREEs is very high because they are used in everyday electronics.
HREEs are also important for nuclear and green technologies, as well as the defence and aerospace industries. However, the extraction of REEs from uranium deposits in Saskatchewan had not been considered a viable option before as there had not been a cost-effective recovery technology developed for it.
Over the last few years, the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) has developed both acidic and alkaline processes to treat different uranium ores and rare earth ores from different areas of the world, including right here in Saskatchewan.
Lab tests have proven that 90 per cent of the HREEs in uranium waste can be recovered. The HREEs recovered from uranium waste can be further separated using SRC’s solvent extraction (REE SX) pilot plant into individual, high purity rare earth elements.
SRC’s pilot plant has 150 stages of mixers and settlers that can be configured to different separation processes for either group separation or individual REE separation. Products with +99.9 per cent purity have been produced from the pilot plant and can be further upgraded to higher purity by increasing the number of stages.
SRC selected the solvent extraction (SX) method for REE separation and developed a processing plant in 2017. SRC adapted that technology to address the specific REE separation challenges in processing secondary rare earth resources such as uranium raffinate. However, the technology is also applicable to the separation of primary rare earth resources such as monazite and bastnasite.
Recovering REEs from uranium mines in Saskatchewan truly has the potential to create significant economic benefits for both mining companies and the people of Saskatchewan.
The Team
This work is being led by a team of engineers, scientists and technologists within SRC’s Mineral Processing group including Jack Zhang, P.Eng., Baodong Zhao, P.Eng., Bryan Schreiner, P.Eng., P.Geo., FEC, FGC, Dennis Wang, P.Eng. and Tim Oleniuk, P.Eng.