It is not an exaggeration to use the words "gloomy clouds" to describe the international rare earth market in the past few days, because China will no moreExportsRare earth extraction and separation technology, part of the rare earth magnet preparation technology。It can't help but remind people that a few months ago, a similar drama seems to have appeared.
Why doesn't China export rare earths?
Rare earths are also calledThe "vitamin" of modern industry, both inElectronicsStill inMilitary technology, medical equipment, all emitting a scorching glow.
China has always been a major exporter of rare earths, and with the intervention and integration of rare earths, China's rare earths have formed a complete industrial chain at a very early stage. We're not just thatThe world's largest rare earth industry, but all the rare earth ** companies that can be named have more or less some Chinese shares.
In the early years, China was not aware of the role of rare earthsStrategic resources and materials, how important is it for the development of modern industry.
In order to better seize the market, our country'sRare earth prices continue to fallThe business model of "small profits but quick turnover" has indeed grabbed a lot of orders, but it has also buried a lot of hidden dangers for China's rare earth industry.
First and foremostEnvironmental issuesRare earth mining and mining have the same effect, both of which need to destroy the original sealing layer. SoDust pollution, soil destructionEven rare earth mining such as land subsidence is also a decline.
In addition, the perennial large-scale low-cost export of rare earths has also led to China'sThere is a serious outflow of rare earth resourcesFortunately, the upper-level leaders corrected this wrong trend in a timely manner, and China's rare earth industry can enter a stage of stable development.
Wall Street** reported after statisticsChina controls 91% of the world's rare earth refining activities, as well as 87% of oxide separation and 94% of magnet production.
Therefore, the remaining rare earth ** traders will not be able to meet the global needs at all, and the international rare earth ** will also rise to a breathtaking height.
Recently, a company calledDisa technologyThe company has thrown a thunderbolt into the international system market.
Disa claims that they have developed oneHigh-pressure slurry erosion machine
The working principle of this machine is very simpleWith the action of a high-pressure nozzle, the mineral slurry is pumped directly into the collision chamber. The so-called collision chamber is the place where different minerals collide with each other.
Different minerals have different physical properties, and they exhibit different stiffness and hardnessDuring the collision process, different minerals will be automatically crushed into small particles of different diameters, separated by screens with different mesh numbers, and the mixed minerals will be gradually separated.
To give a less appropriate example, glass and marble are constantly colliding in confined spaces, because marble is harder, even the volume of crushing is relatively considerable, and the glass will continue to decompose in repeated collisions, and finally become fine glass chips, which can be separated by sieve.
Dissa's analogy is more vivid, when mud-stained tennis balls collide with each other, the mud will fall to the ground, but the tennis ball will not be affected much.
They said that compared to traditional rod mills, high-pressure slurry erosion machines can be used from copper-bearing uranium ores**22% more copper
In the face of rare earth-containing orthoclase, the performance of the high-pressure slurry erosion machine is even more amazing, it perfectly uses the characteristics of orthoclase, rare earth phosphate-containing monazite, silica cerite, and fluorobacerite Mohs hardness, and successfully enriches 95% of the rare earth elements into a coarse sieve sample that accounts for only 58% of the total mass.
Traditional grinders generally perform poorly in the first screening, generally only **29% of rare earth elements.
*If the data is correct, using this high-pressure slurry erosion machine means that you canNearly half of the amount of post-processing is saved, the efficiency of rare earth refining will be qualitatively improved.
Disa claims that the application range of the high-pressure slurry erosion machine is definitely not only rare earth elements, whether it is uranium, vanadium, phosphate, potash, graphite, copper, molybdenum, gold, the machine will be used50 tons per hour processing speedConduct screening.
And the screening process is quite energy-saving and emission-reduction, with an average of only 5 kWh of electricity per ton.
At present, Disa has successfully opened up the mineral rough processing market, and a rare earth revolution is quietly unfolding.
As the world's largest mineral merchant, China has absolute authority in the field of mineral processing and refining.
Will Dissa's high-pressure slurry erosion process have an impact on China's mining industry? In what way does China carry out mineral processing work?
In contrast, although China's mineral processing methods are "blooming", they always feel a little bit"Low-tech"., it seems that it hasn't changed much in decades, and some can even make up for the excitement of Internet celebrities and name it "ancient beneficiation".
The first "ancient method" isRe-selection methodAs the name suggests, different minerals have different densities and are affected differently by gravity.
Friends who liked to play with sand when they were children should know that put stones of different sizes in a basin, and then put the basin on the ground and rotate insideThe sand and gravel raw materials will be stratified under the action of centrifugal forceThe centrifugal sand and gravel separator is based on this principle.
The second isMagnetic separationMagnetic and non-magnetic minerals exhibit very different physical properties when faced with strong magnetic fields.
What does it look like? Just let the magnet roll on the ground a few times, and what can be absorbed is magnetic minerals.
The most commonly used methods are:Flotation, the physicochemical properties of the mineral surface are different,Some minerals can float on the slurry under certain conditionsThis beneficiation method is low cost and simple to operate, which is very favored by the screening industry.
In addition to this, there is utilizationMineral conductivityPerform separationElectric separationand chemical beneficiation using chemical solution precipitation.
In practice, it is often two or more beneficiation methods that work together to carry out relatively accurate coarse screening.
toInner Mongolia Baiyun Obo MineFor example, the size and shape of the ore are irregular during the mining process, so it needs to be crushed in the mine first, and then loaded into a concentrator and sent to the concentrator.
The concentrator will carry out the preliminary grinding classification, and the fine crushed iron oxide ore with higher purity can be magnetically adsorbed out of the cylinder.
The tailings that have undergone preliminary screening are then carried outFlotation and magnetic separation, you can get more than 45% of the secondary iron concentrate.
The remaining rare earths are then flotated at grades between 10% and 15%.Shaker screeningPurify again, and finally you can getabove rare earths.
If Dissa's machine performance is stable and the cost is not high, it is indeed a good choice, and it is hoped that China's mineral processing technology can further innovate and complete a new leap.