A Review on Recovery of Terbium from Primary and Secondary Resources: Current State and Future Perspective

Abstract

Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential for high-tech and low-carbon economies. Achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050 would require a significant increase in mineral input, including 3–7 times more REEs. At present, there are no direct high-grade ores of heavy REs like terbium. Bastnasite, monazite, and xenotime are the primary sources of terbium, while southern Chinese ion-adsorption clays are the richest commercial sources. To address the scarcity of rare earth resources, countries lacking RE deposits should focus on developing innovative and economically viable recycling techniques for the recovery of REs like terbium from different secondary resources. Spent fluorescent lamp phosphor powder represents a potential secondary resource for terbium recovery, although research efforts have been focused mostly on other REEs than Tb as value-added products. Hydrometallurgical processing is widely employed to extract terbium from different resources. The present review systematically summarizes in detail the major recovery/separation techniques used and critically evaluates the potential of terbium recovery from mineral resources and end-of-life fluorescent phosphor wastes. The advantages and limitations of each of these technologies have been provided. The objective is to foster valuable insights for researchers and the development of economical and promising extraction technologies for the recovery of terbium.