• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.74-83
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• 2012

Rare earth metals have been made from rare earth compounds which were prepared from rare earth ore concentrates through successive processes such as leaching(i.e. extraction of rare earth elements to liquid media), separation, purification, precipitation. Here, process for treating monazite and bastnasite ore concentrates were briefly reviewed, and metallothermic reduction and fused salt electrolysis methods were introduced as the extraction technologies for rare earth metals.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.66-77
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• 2018

The import amount of rare metal in Korea is about 6,034 million USD, but the self-sufficiency of rare metals is about only 1%. In order to secure the stable supply of rare metals, it is necessary to operate an efficient stockpile system. In this study, we established a system to assess the adequacy of stockpiles by quantifying the risk factors of tangible and intangible risks in order to establish an efficient stockpile strategy. The model developed in this study aims to select the rare metals that need to be stockpiled first and to suggest the direction of the stockpiling policy in accordance with technological change and market change from the mid and long term viewpoint. The evaluation results derived from the model can quantitatively measure the security level of each rare metal and enable relative comparison between the rare metals using criticality matrix. Therefore, it is expected that more efficient stockpile policy will be possible if the proposed model is utilized in the future policy making.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.27-35
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• 2010

Rare earth alloys and compounds are the raw materials for the manufacture of advanced materials. Although domestic monazite ores have been found, there are some difficulties in recovering rare earth from these ores. Rare earth ores are found in few countries and these countries put an embargo on the export of rare earth ores for the protection of their industry. We gathered some information on the hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes to recover rare earths from bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime which consist of 95% of the total rare earth ores. Since rare earth with the purity more than 6N is needed for use in advanced materials, some separation methods such as fractional crystallization, precipitation, ion exchange, and solvent extraction were introduced.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.8-15
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• 2018

Solvent extraction behavior of light rare earth elements (Pr, Nd) and medium rare erath elements (Tb, Dy) in the HCl-PC88A-kerosene extraction system was investigated in order to separate high-purity light rare earths (Pr, Nd) and medium rare earths (Tb, Dy) in the mixed rare earth chloride solution. In the batch test step, it was confirmed that the separation efficiency was good when the extractant concentration (PC88A) was 0.5 M, the equilibrium pH after extraction was 0.8 to 1.0 (initial pH 1.3 of the feed), the concentrations of hydrochloric acid in scrubbing solution was set as 0.1 M, the concentrations of hydrochloric acid in stripping solution was set as 2.0 M or more. Based on the experimental data obtained from the batch test, the mixer-settler was composed as follows; 4 stages of extraction, 8 stages of scrubbing, 4 stages of stripping, and 3 stages of pickling organic solution. The Mixer-settler was operated for 180 hours, and the operating conditions were continuously adjusted to obtain the high-purity light/medium rare earths. Finally, the purity of light (Pr, Nd) and medium rare earth elements (Tb, Dy) was reached as 3 N class.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.51-60
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• 2014

In this study, the domestic supply & demand of the raw materials of 35 rare metals was analyzed categorized as four types - ores, metals, compounds and scraps. Foreign trade volumes of the raw materials of rare metals have been steadily increased, furthermore, recently trade growth rate highly exceeds GDP. The raw materials of rare metals - silicon, nickel, molybdenum, manganese, etc. - for steel industry were the most big part of the raw materials of rare metals trade, while the raw materials of rare metals for electronics industry were imported relatively small volumes less than $100 million. However systematic supply & demand management on the raw materials of rare metals for electronics industry is needed since recently growth rate per year has been remarkably high over 20%. Import volumes were about three times bigger than export scale, and most of the raw materials of rare metals were traded as a metal form.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.345-349
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• 2019

With increasing demand for resources worldwide, Korea has been negotiating with resource-holding countries to achieve conservation of energy resources. Among them, Russia is the third largest resource-producing and exporting nation in the world and has several resource materials such as nickel, platinum group metals, gold, and other reserves. As a result, there is growing interest in cooperation between Korea and Russia. The aim of this article is to summarize the current status of market flow of Russian energy resources as well as Russia's economic cooperation with Korea. Notably, South Korea needs to focus on investing in overseas mines for a stable supply of rare metals. Nevertheless, securing rare metals is a major task by understanding the flow and policy direction of Russian material mines.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.26-34
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• 2019

Due to the increasing demand of rare earth magnet for various application, it is predicted that the amount of waste rare earth magnet will increase sharply. The process of waste rare earth magnet recycling is mainly consisted of leaching and separation of rare earth element contained in the magnet. However, there is no study on the breakage characteristics of the waste rare earth magnet for production of magnet powder. Therefore, in this study, effective crushing/grinding process and breakage characteristics were investigated for waste rare earth magnet. In the case of jaw crusher, the particle size of magnet was effectively reduced without rapid oxidation. In ball mill grinding test, it was found that the grinding process was not performed properly at the early stage of grinding. Moreover, waste rare earth magnet showed very low specific rate of breakage(S) and high fraction of fine particle breakage distribution(B) compared to ordinary minerals. These results can be used as a basic data for developing crushing/grinding circuit of waste rare earth magnet.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.3-10
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• 2017

Rare earth elements with high purity are demanded for the manufacture of advanced materials. Light rare earth elements are contained in domestic monazite and Ni-MH batteries. In this paper, solvent extraction to separate the light rare earth elements from hydrochloric acid leaching solutions of these resources was discussed. A mixture of cationic and tertiary amine shows synergistic effect on the extraction of LREEs and the extent of pH decrease during extraction is reduced. The effect of solution pH on the extraction and synergism was reviewed. Acquisition of the operation data with mixer-settler on the separation of LREEs by this mixture is necessary to develop a process.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.39-42
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• 2011

The main concern at the moment is securing rare earth(RE) resources, because the RE is the essential elements in green technology such as hybrid car, wind power plant, LED, display etc. It's impossible Korea will be a advanced country without securing RE. The importance of investment radically in the securing RE resources and professional engineers can not be overinvested.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.14 no.6 s.68
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• pp.3-9
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• 2005

In this study, the separation and recovery of cerium hydroxide was investigated from the wasted cerium polishing powders. Waste cerium polishing powder contains $64.5\;wt\%$ of rare earth oxide and the content of cerium oxide is $36.5\;wt\%$. Since cerium oxide, $56.3\%$ of rare earths, is the most stable state in rare earth, the dissolution of cerium oxide in acid solution is not easy. Therefore the process of rare earth oxide by sulfation and water leaching was examined in order to increase the recovery of rare earth. Rare earth elements were recovered in the form of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ by the addition of sodium sulfate to leached solution. The slurry of rare earth hydroxide was prepared by the addition of $\Re{\cdot}Na(SO_{4})_{2}$ to sodium hydroxide solution. After the oxidation of cerous hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) to ceric hydroxide($CE(OH)_{3}$) by aeration, ceric hydroxide was separated from other rare earth hydroxides by controlling the acidity of solution.