Recycling of REE-Containing Polishing Sludge

With China's decision to limit export rates significantly while being the main supplier for the worldwide demand for Rare Earth Elements, world market prices rocketed and the developmen tof a suitable recycling process of our polishing agents became not only feasible, but also necessary. In a first step, contamination-free separation of the polishing agents was established by adaptionof our production sites and equipment, the installation of a suitable filter press, coarse grinder,and filling station for Bigbags. The resulting product, formerly known as “polishing sludge” and now named “R-Pol”, contains a minimum of 80 wt% dry solids and can be stored for an unlimitedamount of time until further processing. It could already be used for polishing after complete drying and milling to suitable grain sizes, but the quality can be improved easy through state of the art processes.