Study estimates amount of lucrative metals in Odisha bauxite waste Premium

Scientists from the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, have estimated the quantity of rare earth elements that can be recovered from red mud, a toxic byproduct of aluminium extraction that India produces in copious amounts.

Scientists from the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), Bhubaneswar, have estimated the quantity of rare earth elements that can be recovered from a toxic byproduct of aluminium extraction that India produces in copious amounts.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial components of electronic and electric systems, from the devices used to produce ‘green hydrogen’ to electric vehicles.

IMMT Bhubaneswar is a facility of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The study, published in Current Science on March 25, reported that fine-grained content of red mud at the National Aluminium Company (NALCO) facility in Damanjodi, Odisha, contains 433 ppm of REEs like cerium, neodymium, and scandium. These metals have applications in catalytic converters, LEDs, electric motors, and high-intensity lamps.

Scientists have known that red mud contains REEs. But the quantity of elements present depends on the location of the bauxite ore and how it is processed.

In fact, “red mud recycling around the world is [undertaken] with scandium as the prime target, whose oxide cost $367/gram as of December 2022,” Pratima Meshram, principal scientist at the Metal Extraction and Recycling Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur, told The Hindu by email. She wasn’t involved in the new study.

Dr. Meshram said previous work by her and others was the first to report that scandium is associated not with iron in red mud, as was believed, but with calcium titanate.