Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101
Technical
Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 - Rev. 0
17-18
Table 17.2 - Precipitation with Oxalic Acid
(SGS Lakefield, 2014)
The precipitated oxalates settle and filter easily. The slurry is first passed through a
high rate thickener (300-THK-001) to concentrate the solids, and then will be filtered
on a belt filter (300-BLF-001). The filtrate is sent to thickener (300-THK-002) to cool
and crystallize oxalic acid. The thickener overflow is sent to the Hydrochloric Acid
Regeneration Unit. The cake containing the rare earth oxalates is dried and
converted into REE oxides in two steps. The first drying step removes water and
residual HCl in screw dryer (300-SCD-001). In the second step, RE oxalates are
converted to oxides at 700
o
C in a kiln (300-KLN-001). The vapor from screw dryer
(300-SCD-001) is sent to scrubber (300-SCF-001). The condensate from scrubber
(300-SCF-001) is bled off to tailings treatment and the scrubbed vapor discharged to
the atmosphere (300-STA-001). The vapor from kiln (300-KLN-001) is cooled (300-
HTX-005) and sent to scrubber (300-SCR-002). The condensate from scrubber (300-
SCF-002) is bled off to tailings treatment and the scrubbed vapor discharged to the
atmosphere (300-STA-001).
Two heat recovery loops are part of the calcination step. The first loop recovers heat
by cooling the kiln exit gas in heat exchanger (300-HTX-005). This heat is used to
pre-heat the PLS. The second loop recovers heat by cooling the REO solids in rotary
cooler (300-CLR-001). This heat is used to heat the nitrate reactors.
La
Ce
Pr
Nd
Sm Eu
Gd
Tb
Dy
Ho
Y
Er
Tm Yb
% % % % % % % % % % % % % %
98% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 99% 100% 99% 93% 99%
Lu
Sc
Th
U Al
As
Ba
Be
Ca
Fe
K Mg
Mn
Mo
% % % % % % % % % % % % % %
93% 92% 100% 4% 3% 43% 15% 1% 45% 0% 10% 0% 0% 29%
Na
P
Pb
Si
Sr
Ti
V
Zn TREE LREE HREE
% % % % % % % % % % %
1% 1% 42% 14% 7% 14% 4% 0% 99% 99% 100%
