Medium- and Long-term Prospects of Material flow for Rare-metal Resources

Okabe, Toru H.; Nose, Katsuhiro

doi:10.3985/mcwmr.22.403

Cited by 2 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The value of nature, which was formed by miraculous natural phenomena occurring over the course of millions of years, must be recognized, and the traditional perspective that places economic principles above all other considerations should be broken. [1,2] Although not commonly discussed, the disposal costs of excess by-products may become significant when the demand for particular element, such as scarce dysprosium and terbium, grows; because the supply of rare earths produced from ores is regulated by the abundance ratio in the ores (see Table III) and this abundance ratio cannot be changed. An imbalance in the supply mechanism can result due to supply disruptions and price increases.…”

Section: Problems and Solutions Related To Rare Earth Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this progress, however, ''the value of nature,'' which is the most important concept when considering the medium-to long-term outlook for the material flow of metal resources, is rarely discussed today. [1,2] The concept of ''the value of nature,'' appropriateness of recycling rare metals, and future trends in material flow are omitted in this study because these topics have already been discussed in a previous article by the authors. [2] Metals are extracted through a multi-step process that includes exploration, mine development, mining, smelting/refining, and processing before being used in industrial products.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1,2] The concept of ''the value of nature,'' appropriateness of recycling rare metals, and future trends in material flow are omitted in this study because these topics have already been discussed in a previous article by the authors. [2] Metals are extracted through a multi-step process that includes exploration, mine development, mining, smelting/refining, and processing before being used in industrial products. When such products are no longer valuable as industrial products, they become waste materials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current Status on Resource and Recycling Technology for Rare Earths

Takeda

Okabe

2014

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions E

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The development of recycling technologies for rare earths is essential for resource security and supply stability because high-quality rare earth mines are concentrated in China and the demand for rare earth metals such as neodymium and dysprosium, used as raw materials in permanent magnets (neodymium magnet), is expected to increase rapidly in the near future. It is also important to establish a recycling-based society from the perspective of the conservation of finite and valuable mineral resources and the reduction of the environmental load associated with mining and smelting. In this article, the current status of rare earth resource as well as that of recycling technology for the magnets is reviewed. The importance of establishing an efficient recycling process for rare earths is discussed from the characteristics of supply chain of rare earths, and the technological bases of the recycling processes for the magnet are introduced. Further, some fundamental researches on the development of new recycling processes based on pyrometallurgical process are introduced, and the features of the recycling processes are evaluated.

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Section: Problems and Solutions Related To Rare Earth Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current Status on Resource and Recycling Technology for Rare Earths

Takeda

Okabe

2014

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions E

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“…Such avoidance behaviour is often called NIMBY (not in my backyard). For more information, see references (Okabe & Nose 2011, Okabe 2016), and Table 1.…”

Section: Rare Metals With Severe Environmental Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When producing rare earth compounds, rare earth ore is dissolved in acid and purified by utilizing solvent extraction (SX) technology to obtain highly purified oxide raw material. The purified oxide feed is then converted to pure metal or alloy by molten salt electrolysis (MS-EW) (Okabe & Nose 2011) (see Figure 7). The SX and MS-EW techniques are based on a well-established extraction technology that could be performed anywhere, including Japan and other developed countries.…”

Section: Rare Metals With Severe Environmental Restrictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottlenecks in rare metal supply and the importance of recycling – a Japanese perspective

Okabe

2016

Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy

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Rare metals are less common metals that are generally perceived to be scarce. The media often presents one-track thinking on the depletion of mineral resources. Despite this common notion, the supply of most rare metalsincluding rare earth metals (REMs)in terms of the amount of minerals available in known deposits is not a serious problem. Key factors that determine the supply of rare metals are the costs of mining and smelting, and related environmental destruction. These are the major practical constraints, rather than the amount of mineral deposits in the earth. When extracting rare metals from recycled feed material, harmful wastes generated from natural ore processing can be avoided. This is the primary advantage of the cyclical use of rare metal resources. In this article, bottlenecks of rare metal supply, and the importance of recycling, are discussed, using REMs as an example.

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Medium- and Long-term Prospects of Material flow for Rare-metal Resources

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Current Status on Resource and Recycling Technology for Rare Earths

Current Status on Resource and Recycling Technology for Rare Earths

Bottlenecks in rare metal supply and the importance of recycling – a Japanese perspective

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