http://www.barnswood.com/tmr/wp/2012/07/june-2012-updates-to-the-tmr-advanced-rare-earth-projects-index/

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/orbite-confirms-it-will-be-capable-processing-separating-rare-earth-rare-metal-concentrates-tsx-ort-1674804.htm

Companies make bold claims about many things, and not just in the rare-earth sector. I will not apologize for being skeptical of any such claims when they are not accompanied by meaningful, public-domain data. As the Russian proverb goes, “trust – but verify”…

The potential to apply the Orbite process to the remediation of red-mud tailings ponds is exciting, if it can be done on a large scale. You comment that this process provides for the “inexpensive production” of rare earths; if this is the case, than it is certainly of significant value to the rare-earth industry too.

I haven’t seen the cost data that you apparently have, that would affirm your characterization of the process as being inexpensive; would you mind pointing me in the right direction for that? Thanks in advance.

For your reference, here is a copy of our previous correspondence:

Fred April 19, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Gareth, I don’t know if you are aware but last week a small Quebec company published a report suggesting they could extract rare earth oxides from a clay deposit they are developing to 99.99% purity. The quantities aren’t huge but the technology seems to be quite impressive. You can check them out here:
http://www.explorationorbite.com/
I’d be curious as to your thoughts regarding the potential of this technology.

Gareth Hatch April 19, 2011 at 10:04 pm
@Fred: I did see the news on Exploration Orbite. Including scandium, their initial data indicates a material grade of 0.05% of rare earths maximum. This is very low … the La and Nd apparently present, for example, is at maybe twice the average crustal abundance for these elements – i.e. nothing particularly noteworthy. Any process used to recover these elements, even as byproducts, would have to be extremely low cost for it to be worthwhile.

10 Fred April 20, 2011 at 8:49 am
Yes, I agree with you about the low grade. However, it is my understanding that the extraction process is quite cheap and that they are testing it on other deposits where the rare earth content is higher… definitely something to keep an eye on. It is particularly relevant when you consider that most rare earth projects don’t have a cheap or easy way to recover oxides in high purity.

11 Gareth Hatch April 20, 2011 at 9:46 am
@Fred: there’s low grade, and then there’s LOW grade… there are advanced projects out there with grades over 300 times richer in rare earths than this one. Understand that the value of the potential primary product in this case, aluminous clay, does not give very much wiggle room in terms of the cost of extraction of any rare earths present.

@Robert O’Connor: I’m afraid that we’ll have to agree to disagree on your perspective concerning disclosures.

@A.VEERAMANI: thank you for your suggestion – we’ll give some thought to incorporating your request for future articles.

I am eagerly waiting for such an article to be published in your site who are no doubt knowledge hup and the authors are experts.

regards.