GRIREM and its predecessor have been committed to research and industrialization development of rare earth metallurgy process for more than 50 years. The sulfuric acid method of smelting Baotou rare earth ore technology (3rd generations of acid method) developed by GRIREM, has been successively applied in Gansu rare earth cooperation, Baotou rare earth and other large enterprises. Currently, more than 90% of the Baotou rare earth ore adopts this technology in production. Since the Tenth five-year plan, independently invented technology including “A new process of extraction and separation of rare earth without saponification”, “The preparation technique of rare earth oxide with the characteristic of low – carbon, low – salt, ammonia -free” have been successfully developed, Which can remove the ammonia nitrogen pollution from the first beginning, and significantly decrease the seperation cost.
In this field, GRIREM has undertaken more than 30 national projects, including the national 973 program, 863 plan, national science and technology support plan, the national development and reform commission special projects, the ministry of industry and information technology special projects and the national natural science foundation special projects(NSFC). We totally applied for more than 60 items of invention patents (15 international patents), among which 39 (5 international patents) items were authorized. GRIREM has achieved the national invention award second prize 2 times, third prize 3 times, national science and technology progress second prize 1 time, third prize 1 time, Chinese patent award honorable mention in 2 times, China nonferrous metal industry science and technology progress award first prize 4 times, second prize 5 times, third prize 3 times. The main research directions include:
1) Rare earth mineral efficient cleaning and smelting technology
2) New method and technology of rare earth separation and purification
3) Rare earth associated resources and secondary resource recovery and utilization technology
4) The technology of waste recycling of rare earth metallurgy separation process
5) Technical standards for rare earth cleaning production and pollution control
