RE: Market news3 Mar 2023 10:43
What the company have stated;
This process flowsheet utilises a pre-treatment process to control impurities, which can then be recovered for re-use later, recycling any dissolved rare earths back into the process. Pre-treated phosphogypsum and solution are forwarded to a counter-current rare earth acid leach designed to extract maximum rare earths from the phosphogypsum solids before the residue is thickened, filtered, and disposed of by dry stacking. The pregnant solution from the rare earth leach is treated in a rapid consolidation process that delivers a highly concentrated rare earth solution to the refining section, where it is treated in a continuous, bulk rare earth ion-exchange process, followed by the separation of target rare earth elements by continuous ion chromatography, nanofiltration, precipitation, and calcining.
In addition to delivering a product into the increasingly important green economy, the PEA has demonstrated the project's crucial role in environmental remediation. It also highlights the potential for significant social and economic benefits to the town of Phalaborwa and the surrounding communities. Studies at Phalaborwa have highlighted the environmental advantages of the project, which include very low levels of radioactivity (exempting Phalaborwa from radioactivity regulation) and the ability to neutralise the existing water from the stacks for re-use in a closed circuit as plant process water. In processing material from the existing gypsum stacks at Phalaborwa, the aim is to remove existing environmental liabilities and redeposit benign gypsum on a new stack, built according to International Finance Corporation ("IFC") Performance Standards and Equator Principles. The PEA highlights Phalaborwa's excellent existing infrastructure, both in terms of physical facilities at site which can be updated, but also access to power, local production of key reagents and a skilled workforce.
CaSO4, CaF2, Ca3(PO4)2
Ca sulphate can be sold as a dried dessicant. Calcium phosphate can be sold as a vegetable extract or anti-caking agent and calcium flouride can be sold in the optical lense and optical window market.
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