Rare Element Resources
Bear Lodge Project
Canadian NI 43-101 Technical Report
October 9
th
, 2014
10135-200-46 - Rev. 0
17-66
The Hydromet process is divided in 5 units:
1) Leach Unit
2) Oxalate Precipitation Unit
3) Thorium Removal Unit
4) Distillation Unit
5) Waste Neutralization Unit
A METSIM model of the Hydromet process was built using bench scale and pilot plant
data from SGS Lakefield Inc., Specific data used in the Hydromet model will be
referenced when applicable. The METSIM model was built to generate a heat and
mass balance as a basis for the plant design, and to generate a forecasted
production for the Hydromet facility. As such, it does not include all design related
considerations that should be included in a typical process flow diagram sheet set
and its mass balance.
In general, the pilot plant was operated for four to five days of continuous operation
for each ore type and condition tested. Data was gathered for each 12 hour period of
operation. For various reasons, the pilot plant operation was not considered to be in
steady state operation for much of this time by SGS Lakefield Inc. SGS Lakefield
Inc., in their reports, stated which time periods were considered to be in steady state.
The data during these periods was averaged and is the data that was used in
modeling and is presented in this report.
Inputs
17.16.2
Physical and Chemical Data for all components in the METSIM model were
compiled and estimated from data tabulated in many databases:
1) METSIM internal Database
2) Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook 7
th
Edition
3) CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
4) Lange’s Handbook of Chemistry
5) Gmelin Database
6) HSC Chemistry Database
7) Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths
8) Rare Earth Coordination Chemistry: Fundamentals and Applications
9) Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds
10) Victor Gilphin and W. C. McCrone. “Crystallographic Data 52. Lanthanum
Oxalate Decahydrate La2 (C2O4)3.10H2O,”
Analytical Chemistry
1952
24
(1),
225-226
