Scandium – Ourselves!

In 2020-2021, Scientific Center of the plant was tasked with developing a technology for producing scandium concentrate with its subsequent radio purification...

Types of pulps formed when:

1 – decontamination of concentrates

2 – leaching of scandium from concentrates

Scandium does not occur in nature in a free state, so obtaining its compounds is a complicated technological task. It is extracted along the way from complex raw materials, where concentrations of related elements are many times higher than the concentration of scandium.

In the process of sorption refining of uranium, sorption queen cells are formed – productive solutions that contain useful components, including scandium. The specialists of Uranium Laboratory of SC had to isolate scandium-containing concentrate from these solutions. After preliminary studies in laboratory conditions on a mobile pilot sorption plant, which, by the way, was developed and manufactured at UMP, technological scheme for extraction of scandium was tested. The initial material was waste solutions of uranium from Tsentralny Mynkuduk deposit of SE Ortalyk LLP, and as a result, scandium-containing concentrate was received.

Scandium, due to its unique features, is one of the most popular, expensive and liquid metals. For example, its minor additives to aluminum can dramatically increase the strength and plasticity of the latter. And introduction of scandium into aluminum-lithium alloy in an amount of only a few hundredths of a percent, without compromising the strength of the material, reduces the weight of the product by 10-12%.

At the next stage of research, the task of cleaning scandium concentrate from impurities including radioactive elements, was solved. Scientists of Scientific Center, after carrying out a large number of experimental works, developed a unique technology for producing scandium oxide. It allowed removal of radioactive impurities from the concentrate, followed by leaching of scandium from deactivated residue. The developed new sequence of technological methods for decontamination and production of scandium oxide powder contributed to the production of a product with a target component content more than 94%.

Scandium alloys are indispensable in aerospace industry, mechanical engineering and other high-tech industries. They are used in the designs of airplanes, rockets, high-speed trains and cars. Mir orbital station, the hull of Soviet reusable Buran spacecraft as well as the International Space Station are made of them.

Taking into account possibilities of widespread use of this metal in innovative industries (aerospace engineering, nuclear power and others), development of scandium mining and industrial application technologies can become one of the important competitive advantages of Kazakh economy.

Irina Khlebnikova, Leading Research Engineer of RC Uranium Laboratory