Suli, and 4 co-authors, reported in 2017 that the recent technological advancement has made the rare earth elements (REEs) more significant and they in turn have facilitated the culmination of more new technological applications owing to their unique physical and chemical properties. In this regard, renewable energy applications such as wind turbine and hybrid cars testify to the increasing demands on permanent magnet in the future. Considering such increasing demands on REEs, it is felt necessary to identify alternative producers of REEs outside of China as one of the measures to create a fair competition and control the price on the market. It is worth highlighting that the separation of rare earth can be both complex and challenging owing to similar properties which are shared by them.
The purpose of this paper was to comprehensively review and summarize the rare earth processing routes, the mostly employed rare earth separation methods, supply and demand of rare earth around the world and some possible scenarios in rare earth market. This review has critically looked into a few authors‘ recent reviews on six major processes of rare earth processing steps and each step is considered as important to produce both high quality and better quantity of REEs.The present study reviewed the available studies, which focused on the exploration of minerals to the purification process in relation to the market demand of REE and RE processing. The results of the studies are as the following:
There are variety of separation process, which has been developed by many researchers and industry in accordance to the demand of REE, types of ores and engineering feasibility.
•The process involved in RE ores processing, from deposit exploration to the purification process are found to be important in RE production. The separation process of REEs involved both leaching and liquid-liquid extraction. The existing literature on the physical beneficiation of RE minerals mainly focused on three major REE (i.e., mineral, bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime) with combination technique by means of using froth floatation, magnetic separator or gravitational separation. Both acid and alkaline treatment leaching were extensively used in REs extraction from ores. However, most of the industries accepted the use of alkaline treatment compared to the acid route.
•Several methods of REs separation processes including supercritical method, electro winning, bio-sorption method, solvent extraction and ion exchange were employed. All of the methods used in the separation technique have their advantages and disadvantages, which were addressed to develop the RE separation processes in relation to cost, efficiency, and quality of REEs.
•The demand on REEs with variety of applications showed an increment recently due to the demand on permanent magnet application. There are several projects, which are still under development out of China due to the restrictions of Chinese export quotas. With regards to these projects, out of China may increase the production of REE, which in turn may contribute to good agreements in developing the world‘s technology.
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