The changing face of the mineral sands industry - Rare Earths

Craig Vadeikis is a Metallurgical Engineer graduate of the University of South Australia. He has been actively involved with the mining and mineral processing industries for over 25 years and has worked with Mineral Technologies for most of his career in the fields of metallurgical testing, process and plant design. Craig has specialist process design expertise in mineral sands, iron ore, tin and tantalum ore plants. Craig is based at Mineral Technologies head office in Carrara, Queensland.

The Global Mineral Sands industry is predominantly focused on the production of titanium and zirconium bearing minerals such as ilmenite, rutile and zircon. However, in recent years there has been a shift in the attention of both explorers and producers to consider the minor rare earth bearing minerals of monazite and xenotime. This shift in focus has necessitated the development of alternate process flowsheets, new and improved separation equipment and indeed the generation of new products and by-products. This presentation discusses the journey of the Mineral Sands industry from humble beginnings on the Gold Coast in the 1940’s through to development of new mining provinces around Australia.