Screening Life Cycle Assessment of beneficiation processes for Rare Earth Elements recovery from secondary sources

Abstract

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are identified as critical raw materials for the EU economy. The ENVIREE project aims at contributing to REE supply in Europe, by addressing the exploitation of tailings and mining waste. Two secondary sources: tailings from New Kankberg (Sweden) and Covas (Portugal) are promising and rich in REEs. Beneficiation is one of the main step of REE recovery from secondary sources. The aim of this paper is to report the Life Cycle Assessment modelling with SimaPro software of beneficiation processes developed for tailings from New Kankberg and Covas. For the REE concentrate production from New Kankberg tailings, which come from an operating gold production plant, the highest environmental impact is caused by the disposal of the final residues after beneficiation. For the REE concentrate production from Covas tailings, which represent 30 years underground mining activity focused in tungsten, the highest environmental impact is caused by the electricity consumption for gravity and magnetic separation.