After more than 40 years of efforts, especially the rapid development since 1978, China’s rare earth industry has undergone a qualitative leap in production level and product quality, forming a complete industrial system. At present, rare earth refining in China
The ore smelting and separation capacity reaches over 130000 tons per year (REO), and the annual production of rare earths reaches over 70000 tons, accounting for over 80% of the world’s total production. Its production and export volume are both the world’s largest.
There are more than 170 rare earth smelting and separation enterprises in China, but only 5 have an annual processing capacity greater than 5000 tons (REO), with most enterprises having a processing capacity of 1000-2000 tons.
At present, China has formed three major production bases mainly around three major rare earth resources:
(1) A northern rare earth production base has been formed with Baotou mixed rare earth ore as the raw material, with Baotou Rare Earth High Tech and Gansu Rare Earth Company as the backbone. There are more than 80 enterprises that produce rare earth chemicals such as rare earth chloride and carbonate annually
More than 60000 tons of compounds and 15000 tons of single rare earth compounds. At present, most rare earth enterprises processing Baotou ore use the acid smelting process developed by Beijing Nonferrous Metals Research Institute, and then use P204 or P507 extraction separation, of which high-purity cerium is generally extracted by oxidation extraction, and fluorescent grade europium oxide is extracted by reduction extraction. The main products include single or mixed rare earth compounds such as lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, etc.
(2) The medium and heavy rare earth production base takes southern ionic type ores as raw materials, and handles nearly 20000 tons of southern ionic type rare earth ores annually. The backbone enterprises include Guanzhou the Pearl River Smelter, Jianyin Jiahua Rare Earth Factory, and Yixin Xinwei Rare Earth Co., Ltd Company, Liyan Luodiya Fangzheng Rare Earth Company, Guangdong Yanjiang Rare Earth Factory, etc. Southern ion type rare earth mines generally use ammonium sulfate in situ leaching carbonate precipitation ignition hydrochloric acid dissolution P507 and naphthenic acid extraction separation and purification.
Medium to heavy single rare earth oxides and some enriched compounds such as yttrium, dysprosium, terbium, europium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, etc.
(3) Using Mianning fluorocarbon cerium ore in Sichuan as raw material, a production base for fluorocarbon cerium ore has been established in Sichuan. There are currently 27 hydrometallurgy plants with a total annual output of 15-2000 tons. The smelting process of fluoride ore and cerium ore mainly involves oxidation roasting various chemical treatment processes derived from the main process of roasting sulfuric acid leaching, with the products being single or mixed rare earth compounds mainly composed of lanthanum, cerium, and neodymium. Most enterprises are small in scale, with low equipment and technological level.There are many primary products in rare earth smelting products, with high purity and single rare earth compound products estimated to not exceed 5%.
Post time: Nov-02-2023