Articles for tag: critical, donates, Minerals, Missouri, recovery, research, Rio, Tinto, University, waste

April 23, 2024

Ron Finklestien

mining

Rio Tinto donates $875,000 to Missouri University to research critical minerals recovery from waste

 “There is currently little-to-no production of these two elements in the United States, and we rely to an alarming extent on importing them,” Alagha says. “If successfully implemented, our research could lead to a much stronger domestic supply of these important resources.”  She says recovering gallium and germanium from the wastes created when processing copper is an unconventional approach, but this type of out-of-the-box thinking is necessary for the U.S. to have a more resilient supply of critical minerals.  Both gallium and germanium are more often recovered as a byproduct of other metal refining process, such as with aluminum, zinc and lead, but

April 21, 2024

Ron Finklestien

mining

New process recovers five times more lithium from waste than existing technology

“The key advantage is that it works in a wider pH range of 5 to 11 compared to other direct lithium extraction methods,” Parans Paranthaman, ORNL Corporate Fellow and co-author of the papers that present these findings, said in a media statement.  The patent-pending acid-free extraction process takes place at 140 degrees Celsius, compared to traditional methods that roast mined minerals at 250 degrees Celsius with acid or 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius without acid. The technique works based on lithiation, during which an aluminum hydroxide powder extracts lithium ions from a solvent to form a stable layered double hydroxide,