Rare Earth Element Separation
The importance of Rare Earth Elements (REE's) to the global economy continues to grow. From cell phones and strategic defense technology to batteries and magnets, REE's form the backbone for many of the products and technologies we interact with on a daily basis. However, Rare Earth Elements also pose significant challenges for conventional mining technology - techonology that has barely progressed in a hundred years. Existing mining and separation facilities have massive environmental impacts, extremely high operating costs, huge energy consumption, and very low efficiencies. The capital costs for building new REE processing facilities can be in excess of $1 billion!