NioCorp aims to produce at Elk Creek metals including niobium, scandium and titanium, which are in high demand due to their wide-ranging uses in products such as mobile phones and electric vehicles.
“These results are right in line with our expectations and are a reflection of the excellent technical pedigree of the L3 team along with a tremendous amount of hard work to get the demonstration plant built, commissioned and operating,” Scott Honan, NioCorp’s chief operating officer said in the statement.
NioCorp’s patent-pending rare earths extraction and purification process used solutions generated by the upstream operations of the demonstration plant.
The rare earths were then precipitated out of solution, producing a solid that contains 6% praseodymium (Pr) oxide, 25% cent neodymium (Nd) oxide, 0.35% terbium oxide (Tb) and 1.6% dysprosium (Dy) oxide, with the balance of the solids consisting primarily of rare earths…
