Applied Mineralogy Studies of Rare-Earth Ores

摘要

New attention has been given to the resources of rare earth minerals over the last years. The natural shortage of these elements in the Earth’s crust and trade restrictions recently imposed by China, motivated the Brazilian Government to encourage new projects by inserting the exploitation of rare earths in the National Mining Plan, which deals with industry strategic issues in the country, helping to reduce current importation. The incentives can be in the choice of future targets for mineral exploration and for the development of laboratory studies and pilot scale processing tests.