RUSAL lauches pilot plant to produce scandium from “red mud”

A leading player in the field of aluminium production, UC RUSAL has launched a pilot project at there aluminium smelter (UAZ) to extract primary scandium concentrate from red mud. Nearly 2.5 tonnes of primary scandium oxide concentrate can be produced in the new unit. In the course of 2014, a total of 74 million rubles have been invested in the project.

For converting primary scandium concentrates into marketable commercial products, the company is planning to create a pilot plant, along with the technology needed. The content of scandium oxide is expected to reach 99.0%% in that case. The pilot plant will be capable of producing 500kg per year and the market price for such products is between USD 3,000 – USD 5,000 per kg.

Aluminium-scandium alloys would be produced at the RUSAL’s smelters from the obtained scandium oxides. Scandium is known to greatly improve the quality of aluminium alloys and having their own source for the raw materials would greatly reduce the costs for the company to produce these alloys.

The Director of RUSAL’s Research and Development, Victor Mann stated that using waste materials as raw materials would greatly reduce costs and increase efficiency moreover they would also be internally and economically benefited in the long-run a result of producing these high value products.