Electrometallurgical Extraction for Metal Winning

METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

seminar seriesSEMINAR SERIES

Thursday, October 26 | 4 P.M. | HH 202

Electrometallurgical processes for metal production represent a unique processing-strategy for metal-production. Electrolysis of a liquid electrolyte, containing the metal-bearing constituent, is the basis of this method of metal extraction. Electrodes (cathode and anode) provide for the injection and removal of reagent- and product-electrons, circulated through the electrical-circuit, by employing an "electron pump" (power supply). The intrinsic fundamental-principles involved can be complex and consequently present a challenging endeavor for its successful implementation. Electrolysis performed with molten-salt electrolytes represent the most-complex class of systems in this regard. The presentation consists of a retrospective of the speaker’s experience in the field of electrometallurgical extraction- processes by molten-salt electrolysis. Three case-studies will be reviewed: 1) magnesium electrowinning, 2) FFC (Fray-Farthing-Chen) alternative titanium production from TiO2 via a CaCl2-based molten salt electrolyte and 3) electrowinning of rare earth metals. In general these molten-salt electrolytic processes incorporate electrode (electron transfer) and physicochemical phenomena. In the operation of an electrolytic cell, in addition to the electron-transfer processes, there are several other potentially rate-controlling ancillary-processes associated with the physicochemical phenomena, which can influence the electro-reduction performance of the cell.

METALLURGY.MINES.EDU

MATT EARLAMInfiniumMatt Earlam received both his Bachelor’s (1982) and Master’s degree (1984) in Metallurgical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines. Matt’s 33-year career has been primarily in the Electrometallurgical Processing Industry: he joined Dow Chemical Co. in 1984 and after a 13 year career, spent the next 14 years at TIMET , devoted to electrolytic magnesium production for use in titanium manufacturing, and conducted research on an alternative Ti-Production route. In 2011 he moved to Colorado to join Molycorp Minerals and served as manager of their rare-earth electro-production effort until 2013. He is currently manager of metal process-engineering at Infinium where he has devoted his efforts to a wide range of molten-salt electrolysis processes. During his long career, Matt has shared his vast knowledge on molten-salt electrolysis as a presenter at technical meetings and as a co-author and author of journal publications. He has been granted 5 patents, two as sole inventor and three as co-inventor