Smartphones, planes and spaceships: why rare earths are needed

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin held a separate meeting on rare earths. And then he gave a detailed comment to Pavel Zarubin, author and co-host of the Moscow: The Kremlin: Putin program, where an important proposal was made. "" Vladimir Putin: Rare, rare earth metals are a very important component, very important resources for modern industries. <...> By the way, we would be ready to offer our American partners – when I say “partners”, I mean not only administrative and governmental structures, but also companies – if they showed interest in working together. Of course, we have an order of magnitude more resources of this kind than in Ukraine. <...> By the way, as far as new territories are concerned, we are ready to attract foreign partners. Our so-called new historical territories, which have returned to the Russian Federation, also have certain reserves. We are ready to work with our foreign partners, including the Americans, there. About Russian rare earths – Oleg Posobin and Ainur Valiakhmetov. “Gold of the XXI century”, as another name for rare earth metals, in nature is actually not so rare. Significant efforts require their extraction, and most importantly - processing. Solikamsk Magnesium Plant was able to extract rare earth metals from ores for the first time in the country. Now they are presented in two states - in liquid for experiments and in powder, these are the very rare metals. It was only now that they showed their natural color. Behind this bright color hides dozens of complex experiments. Four light rare earths with unusual names were derived using a unique technology, which is based on another rare mineral with a metallic luster - loparite. Loparite minerals are mined in only one ore. The production comes in bags by rail as concentrate. From this moment the most important stages begin. From this powder will be extracted concentrate for those rare earth metals. Such minerals in nature are never found in pure form. They're mined in ore. This is usually only a small percentage of the component. The group of rare earths includes 17 chemical elements. Russia has reserves of 15 of them. They are called the most important resource base of the modern economy. For example, gadolinium is used in neutron-capture therapy in the treatment of cancer, thulium in the production of X-ray plants. Neodymium, samarium – necessary in the creation of drones, yttrium – serves as protective elements in body armor and tanks. Each mineral is important in its industry. “The rare earths market is defined by somewhere around $12-15 billion in annual consumption worldwide. If we talk, so to speak, about our capabilities, we can produce more of them, but the domestic market, first of all, which we focus on, it consumes just as much as necessary, said Vadim Tarasov, Head of the Department of Nonferrous Metals and Gold at NUST MISIS. The most promising deposits in our country are concentrated in Yakutia - in the ores of the apatite deposit, in Tuva, in the Sverdlovsk region, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the Irkutsk region, several deposits in the Donbass, deposits in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Murmansk region. In the Lovozero massif is the only operating field in the country. Karnasurt Mine. To get to minerals with rare earth metals, you need to walk or drive several kilometers into the depths of the mountain. Special carriage for transportation of employees. The movement is by means of electric traction on the rails. It's 400 meters above sea level. A little noisy. In the mine landings of the Ministry of Industry and State Corporation Rosatom. Dozens of specialists climb wooden stairs and passages to reach the loparite ore. Rarely in the Arctic are mined in difficult conditions. The road is often flooded with water. You need to walk carefully and look at your feet so as not to stumble. Sometimes miners have to drill the rocks sitting down. In the Murmansk region, employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade flew with an important mission: to assess the extraction of rare earth metals and support it. The state previously exempted such plants from taxes and allocated money. The Skygrad project has already been implemented in the Moscow region. Now colleagues produce about 100 tons of concentrates, they plan 500. This year we expect production, said Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Mikhail Yurin. Lovozersky GOK is the only one in the country that mines and enriches loparite ore, from which rare earth metals are extracted. In May 2023, Rosatom came here. Previous private owners almost ruined the plant. During the year, the state corporation invested more in production than the previous owner for 10 years. “New K-10 electric locomotives have arrived. We have two loading machines and much more, ventilation equipment. This is a very big help, said the head of the Karnasurt mine Andrey Smirnov. There are new ways of mining. Here, drilling and explosions separate the ore from the rock. As a result, in such areas, each car takes more valuable minerals. Soviet posters are still preserved on the wall of the beneficiation factory. They're hard to read. But there is a super-modern ore enrichment machine nearby. A new spectrometer in the laboratory is also designed for the quality and growth of production here. Maximum safety standards have been introduced. Employees exhale air into tubes, each employee is checked by a medic. But these are just the first steps. With the support of the state, Rosatom is able to increase production not only in this place. In the Murmansk region, new deposits with rare earth metals are being developed. But production can only grow at the same time as demand. “The purpose of this visit, this meeting, we associate with the fact that the existing measures of state support that we have in the country require additional adjustment,” said Alexey Shemetov, First Deputy General Director of Rosatom Nedra JSC. How to increase production and production, discussed right at the site of ore enrichment. It's crushed in the factory, then crushed, then further processing steps, and here it is - silver powder. Real loparite concentrate. So heavy! To get two kilograms of substance, it is necessary to process almost a centner of ore. And in this container of rare earth materials about a third. But they need to be allocated at another plant in Solikamsk. This raw material is transported to Solikamsk. The plant has built a system of complex processing of rare earth metals. In these giant tanks, one of the key stages is the formation of rare earths. Loparite concentrate is mixed with catalyst and chlorine. All this happens at high temperatures – over a thousand degrees. It's liquid raw materials coming out. There is only time to change the iron tanks. The resulting salt of incandescent metals is transported to the plant by cranes. All elements of rare earth metals are found in these iron flasks. To choose the right mineral, wait 16 hours until it cools down. Then comes the final stage of processing. Technologies lost after the collapse of the USSR were restored in the Perm region. Rare earths are successfully separated from each other. “The very nature of rare earth metals, why is it so complex? These metals are very close to each other in physical and chemical properties. They respond equally to most reagents. It is impossible to add, conditionally, one acid and get one material, we will pass the resulting solution through 600 consecutively connected tanks, we will diverge lanthanum, cerium, neodymium and praseodymium, explains Ruslan Dimukhamedov, Chairman of the Association of Producers and Consumers of Rare and Rare Earth Metals, General Director of Solikamsk Magnesium Plant. Until recently, rare earth concentrate did not reach its final state. The technological chain has broken. But now the plant is building a new site where all kinds of rare earths will be extracted. Ruslan Dimukhamedov: “We plan to start production so that in 2027 to build and in 2028 already put this production into operation.” The leader in production is China. Russia in terms of stocks of rare elements in second place. The country is also rich in other unique minerals. Russia is one of the world’s largest titanium resource bases. It is developed, including at the plant in Solikamsk. This is the final stage of titanium creation. The 32-ton machine carries a titanium sponge - it insisted there for about five days. Now the final stage is the transfer of the finished unit to the refrigeration compartment. Shock freezing after high temperatures. Fragmentation, and here is the finished product. “This is followed by consumers who make alloys. They make landing gear for aircraft, it can be used in medicine, says Alexander Zhulanov, deputy head of the technology department. Russian raw materials can again compete in the world market. By 2030, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country intends to increase the production of such metals to 50 thousand tons. Well, today there are enough reserves, both for the current needs of the economy and for the long term.

Reagiere auf diesen Beitrag

👍 0 ❤️ 0 😂 0 😮 0 😢 0 😡 0

Подписаться на NX Россия

🔗 Share

Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn WeChat VK LINE KakaoTalk Reddit Pinterest E-Mail