Study on the Critical Metal and Rare Earth Element Occurrences in Sulawesi

摘要

As the development of modern-high technology application is growing, demands of the constant supply ofudScandium (Sc) and rare earth elements (REE) as a new green source of energy is increasing. Meanwhile, sourceudof these elements are limited hence new source of these minerals have to be found. Nowadays, Scandium (Sc) isudan important metal for electrolyte of solid oxide fuel cells and the demand is likely to increase in the near future.udIn addition, REE is an important element in the use of permanent magnets and rechargeable batteries.udExploration on critical metals and rare earth element in Indonesia is still scarce due to lacking of skillful humanudresource who understand about the occurrences and distribution of these elements. Based on the most updateudinvestigation, critical metal particularly Scandium can be found in weathering crust of highly weathered nickelcontainedudultramafic rock. Scandium will be concentrated in limonite and saprolite layer, but the volume ofudenrichment is still unknown. Meanwhile, rare earth element found in granitic rocks particularly in zircon,udmonazite and xenotime. It has been reported that rare earth ore were extracted from heavily weathered graniticudrocks. Sulawesi Island is one of the island where lateritic deposit from heavily weathered ultramafic can beudfound. The lateritic soil can be potential source of scandium. Meanwhile, granitic rocks cover almost 20% of theudisland which also potential source of rare earth element. These suggest that Sulawesi Island has a big potentialudand challenge for critical metal and rare earth element exploration. This manuscript reports the explorationudpotential and challenge of critical metal and rare earth element in Sulawesi based on geological data