THE CURRENT STATUS OF SCANDIUM SUPPLY PROJECTS AND THEIR TECHNICAL CHALLENGES

摘要

Scandium is a metal with emerging uses in aluminium alloying, lighting and ceramic fuel cell applications. The current world supply is small at 15-20 tonnes per year and is largely serviced by scandium by-product recovery from production of other metals. In recent years, an increase in demand for scandium has been hampered by a lack of supply. This has driven the development of a number of production projects where scandium production is a major focus.This paper outlines the potential new sources for supply of scandium from by-products for rutile production, aluminium industry red mud waste and uranium processing. New multi-metal projects include large projects such as the Niocorp Elk Creek development. A lot of study work has been conducted recently on recovery of scandium from laterite deposits. This includes scandium byproduct recovery from Meta Nikel's nickel laterite operations and the Coral Bay nickel laterite processing plant. Studies have also been conducted on a range of scandium-bearing laterites in Australia including the Kokomo deposit in Queensland and the Nyngan, Syerston, Flemington and Owendale deposits in New South Wales.The Nyngan scandium project has recently moved from study to execution phase and is likely to be the first primary supply of scandium in the world.