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Rare earth elements from heavy mineral sands: assessing the potential of a forgotten resource

journal contribution
posted on 2024-11-02, 04:52 authored by Gavin Mudd, Simon Jowitt
Minerals and Mining and the AusIMM.Heavy mineral (HM) sands are usually exploited for titanium and zirconium minerals such as rutile, ilmenite and zircon, but also contain a variety of possible co/by-products, including critical metals such as rare earth elements (REE) in minerals such as monazite and xenotime. The global HM sands industry remains dominated by Australia, which until the mid-1990s included the export of monazite concentrates for REE extraction and provided ∼15-30% of world REE production. The lack of recognition for HM sands as a potential REE resource adds to confusion about potential REE supplies. This study presents a comprehensive assessment of Australian HM sand resources, including an assessment of likely contained monazite, showing that these REE can potentially double the value of a HM sand project. As such, there remains significant opportunities for HM sands projects to increase their economic value by also extracting monazite and xenotime for their REE, with further research needed to assess environmental and radioactivity issues.

History

Journal

Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy, Section B: Applied Earth Science

Volume

125

Issue

3

Start page

107

End page

113

Total pages

7

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Place published

United Kingdom

Language

English

Copyright

© 2016 Institute of Materials,

Former Identifier

2006074870

Esploro creation date

2020-06-22

Fedora creation date

2018-12-10

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