Identifying and extracting rare earth elements from mining operations
AssigneeGeorgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsW. Crawford Elliott, David Shafer
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Abstract
Described herein are technologies for bauxite or kaolin mining operations. A detector is used to detect the presence of a pathfinder element or radioactivity indicating a presence of a rare-earth element. Once the pathfinder element or radioactivity is detected, the mined material is segregated from material mined in which a pathfinder element or radioactivity was not detected. Rare-earth elements are extracted from the segregated material. Once the rare-earth elements are extracted, the material is returned to normal mining operation processing steps.
Claims8
A method of extracting rare-earth elements from a mining, the method comprising:
- using a detector on mining equipment;
- receiving material mined from a mining operation, the material comprising bauxite or kaolin;
- detecting using the detector a pathfinder element or radioactivity;
- separating the material into a first material comprising the pathfinder element or radioactivity and a second material not having the pathfinder element or radioactivity;
- and
- extracting at least one rare-earth element from the first material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.