Method and apparatus for recovering rare earth metals from scrap containing rare earth metal

Abstract

A method of recovering rare earth metals from scrap material that contains rare earth metal includes: (a) forming an oxide by subjecting scrap material to oxidation roasting; (b) preparing a first filtrate by acid leaching the result of step (a) and filtering the residue; (c) forming a precipitate by adding an oxidizing agent to the first filtrate and adjusting pH; (d1) preparing a second filtrate by filtering the precipitate formed in step (c); (d2) obtaining a rare earth metal leaching solution by acid leaching the precipitate formed in step (c) at a predetermined pH and filtering the residue to prepare a third filtrate; and (d3) combining the third filtrate with the second filtrate. Accordingly, a rare earth metal recovery rate is 88 wt % or more based on rare earth metals in the scrap material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.