Extractive Metallurgy Of Rare Earths

Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths compiles information from scattered sources that is often available only to specialists. It provides a complete and usable survey of the rare earth resources, extraction, and production of numerous end products that translates to both laboratory and industrial settings. This book is a source of industry expertis

New Edition Now Covers Recycling, Environmental Issues, and Analytical DeterminationEmploying four decades of experience in the rare metal and rare earths industry, the authors of Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths, Second Edition present the entire subject of rare earth elements with depth and accuracy. This second edition updates the most impor

The growth and development witnessed today in modern science, engineering, and technology owes a heavy debt to the rare, refractory, and reactive metals group, of which niobium is a member. Extractive Metallurgy of Niobium presents a vivid account of the metal through its comprehensive discussions of properties and applications, resources and resource processing, chemical processing and compound preparation, metal extraction, and refining and consolidation. Typical flow sheets adopted in some leading niobium-producing countries for the beneficiation of various niobium sources are presented, and various chemical processes for producing pure forms of niobium intermediates such as chloride, fluoride, and oxide are discussed. The book also explains how to liberate the metal from its intermediates and describes the physico-chemical principles involved. It is an excellent reference for chemical metallurgists, hydrometallurgists, extraction and process metallurgists, and minerals processors. It is also valuable to a wide variety of scientists, engineers, technologists, and students interested in the topic.

The growth and development witnessed today in modern science, engineering, and technology owes a heavy debt to the rare, refractory, and reactive metals group, of which niobium is a member. Extractive Metallurgy of Niobium presents a vivid account of the metal through its comprehensive discussions of properties and applications, resources and resource processing, chemical processing and compound preparation, metal extraction, and refining and consolidation. Typical flow sheets adopted in some leading niobium-producing countries for the beneficiation of various niobium sources are presented, and various chemical processes for producing pure forms of niobium intermediates such as chloride, fluoride, and oxide are discussed. The book also explains how to liberate the metal from its intermediates and describes the physico-chemical principles involved. It is an excellent reference for chemical metallurgists, hydrometallurgists, extraction and process metallurgists, and minerals processors. It is also valuable to a wide variety of scientists, engineers, technologists, and students interested in the topic.

Rare metals play an important role in the development of major branches of industry, such as vacuum equipment, semiconductor electronics, nuclear power and rocket production, as well as in the production of special steels and hard, refractory and corrosion-resistant alloys.Rapid development and improvement in the production of rare metals took place in the ten years which have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this book. These ten years have witnessed the beginning of large-scale production of titanium, zirconium, and germanium, and a significant increase in the production volume; new, improved methods for the separation and purification of metals and compounds (ion-exchange, extraction, crystallization methods) as well as arc and electron-beam melting processes for metals were developed. This made it necessary to rewrite most of this book.In view of the growing importance of the lanthanides and rhenium, chapters on these metals were also included. At the same time, we decided to dispense with the chapters on lead and antimony, since these are not usually listed as rare metals. In describing the metallurgy of each metal, much attention was paid to its physicochemical nature and to the practical operations involved in the main technological processes for the production of its chemical compounds and of the pure metal.This book is a textbook for students specializing in the metallurgy of the rare metals. It is assumed that the student is familiar with the physicochemical fundamentals .of metallurgy, ore dressing, metallurgical furnaces, and processes and apparatus used in extractive metallurgy. The description of standard equipment (leaching apparatus, thickeners, filters, comminution installations, etc.) has accordingly been omitted. The references are grouped together at the end of the book.

This book deals with the rare earth elements (REE), which are a series of 17 transition metals: scandium, yttrium and the lanthanide series of elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium). They are relatively unknown to the wider public, despite their numerous applications and their critical role in many high-tech applications, such as high-temperature superconductors, phosphors (for energy-saving lamps, flat-screen monitors and flat-screen televisions), rechargeable batteries (household and automotive), very strong permanent magnets (used for instance in wind turbines and hard-disk drives), or even in a medical MRI application. This book describes the history of their discovery, the major REE ore minerals and the major ore deposits that are presently being exploited (or are planned to be exploited in the very near future), the physical and chemical properties of REEs, the mineral processing of REE concentrates and their extractive metallurgy, the applications of these elements, their economic aspects and the influential economical role of China, and finally the recycling of the REE, which is an emerging field.