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01/24/2006 -
Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths (2005)
by C.K. Gupta and N. Krishnamurthy
ISBN 0-415-33340-7. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. 2005. Hardcover. 484 pages. $129.95.
The extractive metallurgy of the rare-earth elements has several features that make it unique—a variety of both input ores and final products, numerous pathways from point A to point B, and a chemical separation problem as challenging as any in the field. However, in comparison with most other metals, the market for rare-earth chemicals and alloys is small, and the number of producers is limited. As a result, overviews of rare-earth minerals processing and extraction have been limited to chapters in books about rare-earth materials or extractive metallurgy, and many of these are out of date. The proceedings of rare-earth extraction symposia at TMS annual meetings provide a glimpse of current technology in the field, but not a complete picture.
Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths fills this void and is likely to remain a reference standard for a long time. The book is a complete description of the extraction process, beginning with the mineralogy of rare earths and proceeding through minerals processing, chemical separation of the different elements, reduction to a metal or alloy, and final refining. The rare-earth business has changed considerably over the past 20 years, with the increasing predominance of China as both a raw-materials source and processing location. This change in production is highlighted, along with a description of rare-earth reserves and future production centers.
Considerable space in the book is given to the problem of separating the rare-earth elements from each other, including the different strategies taken by various producers. The use of ion-exchange and more recently solvent-extraction technology is the advance that made cost-effective separation possible, and this process is discussed in detail. Preparation of rare-earth metals is one of the few areas of extractive metallurgy where both molten-salt and metallothermic reduction are used, and both of these are highlighted. More photographs of actual plant equipment would have been desirable, but the equipment schematics and flowsheets presented in the book are very well presented.
Rare-earth metals differ from others metals in the degree of refining that is needed before these metals can be used for some applications. Several refining techniques (zone refining, molten-salt electrorefining, solid-state electrotransport) are used for rare earths that are not commonly seen elsewhere. The chapter on refining in this book is of value not only because it describes how rare-earth metals are purified, but introduces technologies not extensively discussed in general extractive-metallurgy texts. The choice of refining technique differs according to which metal is being purified; the book does a good job of explaining why.
The processing strategy for rare-earth minerals is intimately tied to the final product, which they will be sold as, so the addition of a chapter describing how specific rare-earth “products” (alloys, permanent magnets, thin films) are produced is especially valuable to this book. A summary chapter at the back describing the most important parts of rare-earth extractive metallurgy and the most significant uses of the rare earths is also useful.
The authors have done an exhaustive job of research, and just about everything that has ever been published on rare-earth extraction and refining seems to have been included in the volume. A substantial number of illustrations and (most importantly) flowsheets have also been included. This thoroughness is actually a slight drawback at times, since all the information about trivial or laboratory-only processes makes it more difficult to find the material on processes of commercial importance—some selective editing might have been of value.
Nevertheless, this book is an impressive job of research and organization and will likely be a standard reference in the rare-earth materials community for some time to come.
For more on Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths, visit the Taylor & Francis/CRC Press web site.
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