Nippon Light Metal Company Limited Rare Earth Metal Pilot Plant at JBI to test Extraction Process

“This is a very important milestone in the development of the Bauxite resource in Jamaica. There are other Processes of extracting Rare Earth from different types of rocks and sources. However, extraction from red mud has never been done before in any commercial quantities. This is a first. Everything here you see is prototype, and as such the sensitivity of the project is very important for us”

Comments by Executive Director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee during the tour with the Media of the Rare Earth Metal Pilot Plant located at JBI (Jamaica Bauxite Institute) located in Hope Gardens, along Old Hope Road on Wednesday October 23^rd 2013

The investors in the US$5 million Pilot Plant to extract Rare Earth, Nippon Light Metal Company Limited, in a bid to beat China at their Game as the No. 1 Rare Earth Metal Producer is well on its way to begin operation by the end of October 2013 as stated in the article “A Rare find”, published Thursday, October 24, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

The Rare Earth Metal Pilot Plant is under construction at the JBI (Jamaica Bauxite Institute) located in Hope Gardens, along Old Hope Road. Apparently, it’s a patent-pending experimental Process that’ll need to be refined before it can be scaled up to a large size.  A month behind schedule due to difficulties in shipping (don’t we all know it!) means that the schedule has been pushed back by a month and the Pilot Plant is expected to be in operation in November 2013 and run until March 2014.

This is the same company that had approached the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining in January 2013 to extract Rare Earth Metals from RDA (Residue Disposal Area) Mud or “Red Mud”, a waste product of Bauxite mining as explained in my blog article entitled “Japan’s Nippon Light Metal Company Limited to mine Rare Earth elements in Jamaica - Jack Reacher recycling gadgets for Rare Earth Elements”.

Other sources of Rare Earth Metals are opening up worldwide. But this Process being pursued by the Japanese is no different from extracting leftover Gold (Au) from the wastewater in their Industrial areas in Japan that began in 2009 as explained in “Japan's sewers paved with gold”, published 2:59AM GMT 02 Feb 2009 by Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo, The UK Telegraph.

Rare Earth Metals from RDA Mud – High Concentrations well worth the Effort

If you’ve read this article, you’d have realized that their aim was to displace China, which not only has a monopoly on Rare Earth Metals but is also running out. Jamaica, as a partner with Japan, stands to benefit immensely, as Rare Earth Metals fetch prices as high as US$3000 per kilogram, compared to Alumina, the main product of Bauxite Mining, which only goes for approximately US$300 per tonne.

Even more interesting is that the end waste product from the Rare Earth Metal Extraction by the Pilot Plant will be rich in Iron (Fe) and Titanium (Ti) as explained in my blog article entitled “Rare Earth Metals Extraction from RDA Red Mud's got Titanium and Iron by-products - All You Need is Kill the Scrap Metal Industry and Agriculture benefits in The Place Beyond the Pines”.

The mined out Bauxite lands can also be resuscitated, thus allowing for a completion of the cycle of land renewal. But it’s the patent-pending Process that everyone is interested in. After all, the Japanese realized that the concentration of Gold in their Industrial sewers had more Gold (Au) in it than fond from traditional mining techniques.  If so, that means that the claim of concentration of Rare Earth Metals in our RDA 2500 times that of other Bauxite Mining countries means that it’s more than feasible to do the Pilot Plant.

Especially as China is heading towards the Rare Earth Crunch that slated for 2015, as apparently it didn’t happen in 2012 as predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Chinese Crisis in Rare Earth Metals: Afghanistan is Silicon Valley's Savior”.

So if Jamaica can get this laboratory Process scaled up to a Process Plant size, it’ll generate some serious foreign exchange. Minister of Science and Technology, Phillip Paulwell as well as Executive Director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee commented on the fact that this was really a first of its kind prototype for a Plant.

A quote from Minister Phillip Paulwell is quite revealing, quote: “Last year we visited Nippon Light's [laboratory] in Japan and saw them working on Rare Earth minerals from our red mud, and we were very pleased with what we saw there. What I'm seeing here now is about 10 times the scope of what they were doing in Japan and I am very, very impressed. I now understand why it is $500 million that's been spent so far, and I believe that this is going to represent a tremendous project for Jamaica. The Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining is pleased and proud that we are fostering this kind of development in Jamaica”.

Extraction Process involves Oxidation - Dysprosium is the Target of the Pilot Plant

According to Operations Manager Tsuyoshi Kawarasaki, Dysprosium (Dy) is the Target Rare Earth Metal along with the other as shown in the Infographic below along with their relative uses:

If you read my blog article entitled “Japan’s Nippon Light Metal Company Limited to mine Rare Earth elements in Jamaica - Jack Reacher recycling gadgets for Rare Earth Elements”, it’ll make it clear which elements are Rare Earth Metals.

As for the Process as described in my blog article entitled “Rare Earth Metals Extraction from RDA Red Mud's got Titanium and Iron by-products - All You Need is Kill the Scrap Metal Industry and Agriculture benefits in The Place Beyond the Pines”, this recent bit of news on the Plant’s opening reveals a bit more as to how this patent-pending experimental Process works.

Basically the Red Mud, which is taken from RDA Pond at Windalco's Kirkvine works as dried bricks of mud, is stored in an open area to allow for further drying of the Red Mud. This open area apparently uses some form of Solar Drying based on the capacity of 30 tonnes. This may possibly be achieved by crushing the Dried Red Mud down to a powder and then allowing concentrated sunlight to heat it to drive off excess moisture and any remaining Caustic Soda (NaOH).

When this is done, Distilled Water is added to dilute the now dried powder to a known concentration. This by doing a Chemical assay using titration for Iron Oxide (FeO₂) the most plentiful element known in the mixture, the main reason why the Red Mud is Red in colour against a known reducing agent as the titrand, such as 0.001 mol/dm³ Potassium Dichromate (VI) (K₂Cr₂O₃).

Once the volume required to achieve a known concentration is determined, the Pilot Plant is set to dilute the Rare Earth Mixture to that required concentration. The Mixture is then reacted with Sulphuric Acid (H₂SO₄). As anyone in 3^rd Form that does Chemistry in Jamaica will tell you, when you react a metal in an aqueous solution with an Acid, you’ll get an Oxide of the metal and water as byproducts. To wit, using Dysprosium (Dy), even without knowing the valency, it should be oxidized and react as follows:

Dy _(aq) + H₂SO_{4 (aq)} ® Dy SO_{4 (aq)} + H₂O _(l)

This Salt will precipitate out of solution along with the Sulphate Salts of the other Rare Earth Metals, so named not because of their unreactiveness but because of how sparsely distributed they are across the Earth. At this point the sulphates can then be separated via Centrifugation as they have different known weights.

Once the salts in Aqueous solution have settled into different coloured bands, known reagents (that’s’ the part that’s’ secret) are then used to determine which layer is which Rare Earth Metal. Then once each layer is determined, that layer in the centrifuge is decanted and Electrolysis is then used to reduce the aqueous salt to Reduced metal at the Cathode (-), most likely made from inert Platinum or Graphite.

Interestingly the Process, which may use electrolysis, may partly explain why the JBI was chosen as the site, as it situated close to the Power Sub-Station just outside and thus makes for easy access to power via the installation of a suitable Transformer to supply the Pilot Plant with Power for the Electrolysis Stage.

R&D First Steps - Rare Earth from Red Mud is Applied Inorganic Chemistry

This Pilot Plant, once it’s up and running will help to answer some fundamental questions about the Theoretical Process that was demonstrated at Nippon Light Metal Company Limited’s Lab in Japan. This is mainly focused on the practicality of this patent pending Process to efficiently extract Rare Earth Metals, as the suggested Process described above implies.

Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee said as much, quote: “All the equipment inside there is brand new. This has never been done before, so we need to know how will they stand up under pressure, under the quantities we're talking about? How will the Process work, how efficiently will it work? How do we maximize the efficiency of the Process while minimizing the cost to be able to get the benefits coming out? The chemistry and the science is all good, all pointing in the right direction, but how do you translate it into business? That's what this is about and you don't want to make the mistakes in a full Plant. That's what the Pilot Plant is for”.

The Process described above is based on my knowledge of Bauxite mining that I gained while working at JAMALCO as a Electrical and Process Engineer on contract with Automatic and Computer Systems Limited (April 10^th 2012 – May 22^nd 2012). During that time, I saw their entire Process from Digestion to Calcination and I even took home copies of their well known Bayer Process which I have to this day.

Hopefully when the Pilot Plant does come on stream in November 2013, it’ll have a successful four (4) month run, proving that Jamaica’s RDA Red Mud does indeed have the highest Rare Earth Metal Concentration in the World. Scaling up to a Commercial Plant should commence by the middle of 2014 and by then we should taste the Rainbow of benefits from these Rare Earth Metals that appear to be so plentiful in our Bauxite Waste.