By Shruti Salwan
London 12/10/2016 - Rio Tinto Kennecott, in partnership with the Critical Materials Institute (CMI)- a US Department of Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames Laboratory - has initiated new research to optimise the efficient extraction of critical minerals and metals from the company’s operations in Utah.
As a part of the research initiative, Rio Tinto Kennecott will combine its operational expertise with CMI’s materials science expertise to focus on improving recovery rates of critical minerals and metals from the company’s copper smelting operations working towards clean power manufacturing.
The research will span three different workstreams – including the improvement of potential recovery rates of critical minerals from samples sourced from Rio Tinto’s operating copper mine and resolution copper project in Arizona; increasing rare minerals’ recovery rates through tailings processing; and examining process improvements to facilitate the blending of processed electronic waste with copper concentrates.
While the mining research initiative could lead to potential recovery of rare minerals – such as rhenium, selenium, tellurium and scandium – process improvements are likely to materially increase in the recovery of valuable metals such as gold, copper, silver, platinum along with essential energy minerals including lithium and rare earths.
Nigel Steward, managing director at Rio Tinto copper and diamonds operations, said in a press release: “We know there is potential to recover more rare metals and minerals in our current smelting process; we just need to find ways to do it more efficiently and economically. We are excited to be working with CMI to find innovative solutions.”
This article was first published in Metal Bulletin sister title Industrial Minerals.