Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[bcomaha]

In 1974 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission received a patent to reduce scandium oxide to pure scandium metal. The patent has expired, but there are companies still looking into this. The oxide can be reduced/converted into different forms, such as nitrates.


Niocorp may be holding scandium agreements for these "emerging markets" to develop.

I copied the below from paperwork filed with the patent office from a Massachusetts company. Infinium http://www.infiniummetals.com/index.php



STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

[0003] This invention was made with government support under grant number

1,648,081 awarded by the National Science Foundation. The government has certain rights in the invention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0004] Embodiments of the invention relate to produc tion of rare earth metals from oxides.

BACKGROUND

[0005] Scandium, yttrium and other rare earth metals have important potential applications, from strengtheners for aluminum and magnesium alloys, to magnets, and nuclear applications. In particular, scandium increases room-temperature strength of aluminum more than any other element per mole of addition. Scandium aluminide nano-particles, sometimes called strengthening precipitates, deposited throughout an aluminum alloy can maintain their fine size and dispersion at elevated temperature. The scandium-aluminum alloy thus retains its strength even through welding or sintering operations, including 3-D printing by selective laser sintering or wire melting. For example, a motorcycle was 3-D printed using aluminum alloy that contains about 1 wt. % scandium (see Airbus AP Works's "Light Rider," claimed as the world's first 3-D printed motorcycle). Alcoa/Arconic, sporting goods makers, and metal 3-D printers are current or future Al-Sc alloy users. Gadolinium is similarly one of the preferred strengtheners for magnesium alloys, improving its high-temperature strength considerably. Thus, there is a need for an improved technology to produce rare earth metals. Furthennore, it is desirable for scandium or rare earth metal production technology to be compatible with western labor markets and workplace safety and environmental standards.

[0006] Due to the slow dissolution kinetics of scandium metal in liquid aluminum, Al-Sc alloy is typically introduced in the form of Al-2 wt. % Sc "master alloy." The liquidus temperature of 800 °C for this 2% by weight scandium composition makes it easier to produce than higher-scandium master alloy, and it dissolves very quickly in liquid aluminum. Thus, 2% by weight Sc master alloy is the preferred precursor for most of the scandium metal used in aluminum alloys. But there are two recent developments in higher scandium fraction materials.

[0007] First recent development is a high-entropy alloy with composition

Al2oLi2oMgioSc2oTi3o that has about 5.9 GPa hardness with a density of about 2.67 g/cm3 and potential strength/density of about 2 GPa strength (Mater. Res. Lett 3(2):95, 2015): herein incorporated by reference in its entirety)-

[0008] Second recent development is an aluminum with up to 40% by weight scandium that is a sputtering target for reactive sputtering of high-performance AlScN piezoelectric (IEEE Trans. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 61(8): 1329, 2014; herein incorporated by reference in its entirety).

[0009] The above two applications contain higher fraction of scandium and use of pure scandium metal is preferred for production. Thus, there is a need for an improved technology to produce pure scandium metal.

The paperwork was applied for in July of 2018 & published Jan 2019.