{"id":379839,"date":"2025-11-15T03:44:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379839\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T03:44:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T03:44:29","slug":"what-australia-can-learn-from-china-to-become-the-worlds-cleaner-rare-earth-refiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/379839\/","title":{"rendered":"What Australia can learn from China to become the world’s ‘cleaner’ rare earth refiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia holds a plethora of rare earths \u2014 minerals essential for all sorts of cutting-edge technologies<\/a> from wind turbines to hypersonic missiles.<\/p>\n

Until now, most of them have been sent to be refined in China.<\/p>\n

That is largely because the process is dirty, expensive, and politically unpopular.<\/p>\n

\"pipes<\/p>\n

Wastewater ponds on the outskirts of the city of Baotou in China’s Inner Mongolia have polluted soil and water. (Reuters: File)<\/p>\n

But after last month signing a $13 billion critical minerals deal with the United States to boost production and refining<\/a>, Australia must deal with some significant environmental challenges \u2014 mostly around water.<\/p>\n

Marjorie Valix, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Sydney, who researches sustainable mineral processing, said Australia has plenty of opportunity \u2014 and responsibility \u2014 in this space.<\/p>\n

“Rare earths aren’t rare in Australia \u2014 especially light rare earths,” said Professor Valix.<\/p>\n

“But water is one of the vulnerabilities.”<\/p>\n

The bottleneck<\/p>\n

When researcher Jane Klinger first visited China’s Bayan Obo mine at Baotou in Inner Mongolia \u2014 the world’s largest rare-earth operation \u2014 more than a decade ago, she expected to see the future of green technology.<\/p>\n

What she found instead was a cautionary tale: acidic wastewater and radioactive residue in unlined ponds along with contaminated rivers and farmland.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

China has reduced its use of the most-polluting refining processes. (Reuters)<\/p>\n

“The stuff we want is typically a very small percentage of what’s dug up,” Professor Klinger, author of Rare Earth Frontiers, told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“And then there’s the waste that’s generated to separate the valuable bits from the rest of the rock.<\/p>\n

“People don’t quite grasp how much waste we’re talking about.”<\/p>\n

What purpose do critical minerals serve?<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia is joining the European Union and the United States in establishing strategic reserves of critical minerals, but what do they actually do, and why are they so important?<\/p>\n

For every tonne of rare-earth oxide produced, roughly 2,000 tonnes of acidic wastewater are left behind.<\/p>\n

It was a local taxi driver, pointing to a new hospital built to treat bone disorders, who tipped her off to what was unfolding around Baotou.<\/p>\n

She discovered cases of cancers, arsenic poisoning and birth and joint deformities linked to years of unregulated dumping.<\/p>\n

Australian National University professor of economic geology John Mavrogenes said the Chinese companies were mining by drilling and pouring chemicals into the holes. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“They found it was so bad environmentally that even China decided maybe they should quit,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"blue<\/p>\n

Rare earth leaching pools in Myanmar. (Supplied: Global Witness)<\/p>\n

The health and environmental impacts were so severe Beijing has since tightened regulations and cleaned up some sites.<\/p>\n

It has also shifted much of its most-polluting refining methods to neighbouring Myanmar.<\/p>\n

In Jiangxi province, China’s other main rare earth mining hub in the south, more than 100 mine sites have been shut down in the past decade <\/strong>and converted into parks, according to local media.<\/p>\n

\"piles<\/p>\n

China has introduced stricter regulations on rare earth refining to reduce damage to the environment. (Reuters: Stringer)<\/p>\n

Learning from China’s mistakes<\/p>\n

Experts insist Australia can do better.<\/p>\n

The Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands mine in western Victoria \u2014 which was given major projects status last month \u2014 will use a method that uses fewer chemicals than hard-rock mining to extract rare earths.<\/p>\n

Once operational, the site is expected to become the fourth-largest rare earth mine in the world outside China.<\/p>\n

Daniel Emes, a radiation consultant on the project, said the ore there would be “below the threshold” for radioactivity under Australian regulations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Donald Rare Earth and Mineral Sands mine is located in western Victoria.\u00a0 (Supplied: Astron)<\/p>\n

The company behind the project, Astron, plans to rehabilitate the land and send its rare-earth concentrate to Utah for further processing, where uranium will also be recovered.<\/p>\n

Victoria bans uranium mining outright, but the US intends to use the by-product as fuel for nuclear power plants.<\/p>\n

Professor Klinger said one of the most impactful lessons from what she found in China was simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Don’t dump this stuff in tailings ponds without liners,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Don’t contaminate groundwater, but also pay attention to ‘who’ is doing the modelling and monitoring.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Marjorie Valix experiments with techniques that are less water-intensive. (Supplied: University of Sydney)<\/p>\n

When the Donald mine starts production next year, processing is to take place in enclosed sheds, with waste sealed into containers and shipped off-site.<\/p>\n

But Australia has not always had a spotless record: past projects such as fracking in the northern territory<\/a> and old coal mines<\/a> show how environmental oversight can fail.<\/p>\n

The water dilemma<\/p>\n

China dominates the separation and refining of rare earths, controlling over 90 per cent of global production.<\/p>\n

In Western Australia, Iluka Resources is building Australia’s first rare earths refinery.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Iluka will refine heavy rare earths which are essential in modern weapons. (Supplied: Iluka)<\/p>\n

The process \u2014 crushing rock, separating minerals, and neutralising the waste \u2014 requires vast amounts of water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iluka’s refinery will consume just under <\/strong>1 gigalitre of groundwater per year.<\/p>\n

Iluka head of rare earths Dan McGrath told the ABC the refinery would operate as a zero liquid discharge facility.<\/p>\n

“Unlike other facilities, we don’t discharge water to the environment at any point,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“Our design avoids generating liquid waste altogether, and the reagents we use create a saleable fertiliser by-product instead of requiring disposal.<\/p>\n

“All remaining solids will be disposed of in existing mine voids, removing the need for new waste containment facilities or above-ground disposal facilities.”<\/p>\n

Professor Mavrogenes said water scarcity was already shaping where new mining projects can go ahead.<\/p>\n

“Water is an issue because most ores are located in areas that don’t have enough water,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"streams<\/p>\n

Scientists said heap leaching with sulphuric acid is one of the most impactful parts of refining. (Reuters: Joe Penney\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The Iluka refinery will produce both light and heavy rare earth oxides used in advanced manufacturing of items, including medical devices and defence weaponry.<\/p>\n

A wastewater treatment plant will form part of the facilities, but the plan has drawn criticism amid ongoing water shortages.<\/p>\n

In Victoria, Astron has secured water entitlement from Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water.<\/p>\n

Geologists including Professor Mavrogenes have warned that a secure water supply and planning needed to account for climate change.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Iluka plans to build a rare earths refinery next to its mining operations. (Supplied: Iluka)<\/p>\n

“Flooding can shut down processing, especially with heap leaching,” he pointed out.<\/p>\n

Heap leaching is where a chemical solution is trickled through a heap of crushed ore, often in a pond, to dissolve the metals.<\/p>\n

Other environmental concerns once shadowed Lynas Rare Earths, Australia’s largest producer of rare earths, which ships semi-processed concentrate to Malaysia for refining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company initially faced local protests over low-level radioactive waste.<\/p>\n

Kuan Seng How, assistant professor in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, said Lynas had since built a permanent, sealed facility to prevent groundwater seepage \u2014 an expensive but necessary fix.<\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n

Protests were held in Malaysia calling for a suspension of the Lynas rare earths processing plant. (Reuters: Liz Lee)<\/p>\n

Together, Iluka’s new refinery and Lynas’ remediation effort illustrate the same lesson: refining is not just an engineering problem but a resource-management one.<\/p>\n

A cleaner frontier<\/p>\n

China now lines its wastewater ponds with bentonite clay to reduce leakage and collects some run-off for reuse.<\/p>\n

Yet even those measures have not stopped some seepage leaking outward, according to a recent article<\/a> published in the Chinese journal Modern Mining.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Australia is home to many rare earths, many found in mineral monazite in Iluka’s mines. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)<\/p>\n

Industry and researchers are now exploring waterless extraction technologies such as solvolysis \u2014 a process that uses chemical solvents instead of water to extract rare earths.<\/p>\n

“It can leach and separate the metals in one step,” Professor Valix said.<\/p>\n

“But it hasn’t been scaled up yet \u2014 and right now it’s more expensive.”<\/p>\n

She sees water management as the defining test of Australia’s ambitions.<\/p>\n

“In chemical engineering, we’re already modelling water use across extraction and processing steps to minimise industries to manage it more sustainably,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

Her colleague Susan Park from the University of Sydney added that as countries raced to upgrade rare earth processing, Australia must invest more in knowledge.<\/p>\n

“One of the issues is the absence of long-term research and development into these technological processes\u00a0and training people,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lynas bags rare earth concentrate in sacks and ships it to Malaysia to be refined. (Reuters: Melanie Burton)<\/p>\n

China may already be a step ahead, testing new techniques on a large scale.<\/p>\n

In January, the Chinese Academy of Sciences claimed a breakthrough: an electrokinetic extraction technique that slashes the use of leaching agents by 80 per cent, mining time by 70 per cent and energy consumption by 60 per cent.<\/p>\n

According to the scientists who revealed the development in the journal Nature Sustainability, the method could soon be viable for large-scale production.<\/p>\n

For Australia, Professor Valix said the barrier was not capability but commitment.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that we don’t have the technology,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

“What we don’t have is the investment and the uptake market here like battery makers or manufacturers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia holds a plethora of rare earths \u2014 minerals essential for all sorts of cutting-edge technologies from wind…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[182192,74,182191,746,16530,182190,50949,182193,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-379839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australia-mining","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-chinese-mining","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-mining","13":"tag-mining-industry","14":"tag-rare-earths","15":"tag-rare-earths-refining","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115551657922764535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}