rare earth recovery

Rare earths are not as rare as the name suggests, they are relatively abundant in the earth`s crust,
but their concentration is less in ore deposits, in particular heavy rare earths. Commercially,
REEs are extracted from the bastnasite, monazite and xenotime ores. The extraction of REEs
from mineral ore (primary source) is a complicated multi step process with a huge amount of
toxic wa ste released during the processes. The recovery of REEs from secondary sources such