National Research Nuclear University MEPhI

A. V. Valkov, Professor of a Chair of Chemistry, e-mail: ale1534@yandex.ru

Features of the rare earth production at the present are considered. The situation is characterized by absolute domination of China at the market of rare earth metals and derivative products. Difficulties connected with necessity to extract from the ore all rare earth elements in the situation of the preferable consumption of separate ones and relative lack of demand for the others are noted. In author's opinion it is necessary to consider the concentrates of rare earth elements as an integrated raw materials with consequential need for domestic consumption of the all extracted elements. The key sources of the rare earth elements in Russia can be loparite, apatite and complex ores of a Tomtor deposit. It is proposed a technology of the rare earth concentrates reprocessing, including division into groups with the following concentrates obtaining: lanthanum, cerium, samarium-europium-gadolinium-terbium, terbiumdysprosium-holmium-erbium, yttrium-thulium-ytterbiumlutecium and 99,99% didimium. Cerium is separated by oxidation up to Ce⁴⁺, and for separation of holmium, erbium, yttrium, thulium, ytterbium, lutecium it is recommend to use a Cyanex-272 extragent. It is proposed to produce pure oxides using obtained concentrates by extraction with total internal spraying. Variation of number of the steps required for formating an accumulation zone in a mode of a total internal spraying and changes in the content of impurities in a selected element by steps of the cascade are given.

1. Burlakov E. V. Uran-erbievoe toplivo RBMK. Sovremennoe sostoyanie i perspektivy. Materialy XII seminara po probleme fiziki reaktorov «VOLGA–2002» (Uranium-erbium fuel RBMK. Modern status and prospects. Materials of the XII Seminar on the problems of reactor physics «VOLGA–2002»). Moscow, 2002. pp. 88–91.

2. Pyartman A. K., Keskinov V. A., Kovalev S. V., Kopyrin A. A. Radiokhimiya – Radiochemistry. 1997. Vol. 39, No. 2. pp. 145–148.

3. Karmannikov V. P., Klimenko M. A., Mikhaylichenko A. I. et al. Tsvetnye Metally – Non-ferrous metals. 1991. No. 8. pp. 60–63.

4. Mikhlin E. B., Rozen A. M., Norina T. M. et al. Zhurnal Neorganicheskoy Khimii – Russian Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. 1976. Vol. 21, No. 7. pp. 1856–1861.

5. Valkov A. V., Borisov N. I., Prilipko A. I., Khmelevskaya N. D. Khimicheskaya Technologiya – Chemical Engineering. 2010. No. 3. pp. 159–162.

6. Valkov A. V., Syrtsov S. Yu., Korpusov G. V. Razdelenie redkozemelnykh elementov s nakopleniem produkta v odnoy iz chastey ekstraktsionnogo kaskada. XIII Rossiyskaya konferentsiya po ekstraktsii: tez. dokl. Ch. 2 (Division of rare earth elements with accumulation of the product in one of the extraction cascade parts. The KhIII Russian Conference on extraction: thesis of a report. Part 2). Moscow, 2004. pp. 154–155.