The recently held Rare Earth Elements ("REE") Symposium, hosted by the CIM's Metallurgy and Materials Society of Canada in Montreal, October 27-31, 2013, proved to be a tremendous success. The Symposium was chaired and largely organized by Avalon Rare Metals Inc.'s ("Avalon") Energy and Market Advisor, Ian London and was attended by over 200 actively participating delegates. Among the delegates were prospective producers, processors and end users covering the full rare earth supply chain, as well as academic and international institutions, who heard some 50 peer-reviewed science and technology papers from 17 countries.
Presenters included leading engineers and scientists from General Electric, General Motors, academics from five Chinese Universities, Canadian academics (McGill, Laval and Saskatchewan), Mintek (South Africa), ANSTO (Australia), Ames Labs (USA), SGS Canada, SENES (Canada), KIRAM/KITECH (Korea) and several European recycling and applications specialists. Keynote addresses were delivered by Marian Campbell Jarvis, Canada's Assistant Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada, and Dr. Alex King, the Executive Director of the Critical Materials Institute.
Avalon's Senior Metallurgical Consultant Henrietta Notzl, M.Eng., MBA, and Chemical Engineer, Jai Yi Guan, BA Sc., presented papers titled Hydrometallurgical Plant Design Parameters for Avalon's Rare Earth Process and Flotation Flowsheet Development for Avalon's Rare Metals' Nechalacho Deposit.
"The high quality of papers, presentations and interactive discussions during the 3.5 days clearly exceeded everyone's expectations. Delegates shared and discussed technical data of both successes and failures, which can only accelerate processing solutions and solidify emerging rare earth supply chains", noted Symposium Chair Ian London. "To witness seasoned leaders in rare earth processing and applications technologies also engaging groups of younger science and engineering PhDs, up-and-coming PhD's, and Masters candidates bodes well for the future of this emerging industry."