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a few subsidiaries with annual capacity Table 4: Russian exports of scandium & certain scandium compounds to US pressure acid leach (HPAL) and solvent Table 5: Red mud generation in Indian bauxite refi neries (mtpa)
about 20-tpa of oxides. Scandium metal Scandium compounds extraction (SX) techniques. It will pro- Company Location Red mud generation
Qty. (kg) Value (US$) Exports to Qty. (kg) Value duce 37-tpa of oxides. The project is Nalco Damanjodi, Odisha 3.10
Taojiang Ruilong Metals New Mate- awaiting agreements for off take.
rials is a joint venture of Hunan Metal US, share (US$) Hindalco Utkal, Odisha 2.05
Material Institute and Bloom Energy of 2017 14 199,820 100% 5 14,420 There are two other projects at pre- Hindalco Belgavi, Karnataka 0.44
USA (the largest producer of SOFCs). 2018 54 757,800 100% 3 17,131 liminary stage by this company. Similarly Hindalco Muri, Jharkhand 0.61
Capacity of Sc O is 5-tpa and of Al-Sc 2019 60 819,000 97% 5 32,725 there are many others where only the Hindalco Renukoot, Uttar Pradesh 0.97
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alloys 50-tpa. 2020 130 1,746,780 100% 2 52,840 reserves of ores have been confi rmed. Vedanta Langigarh, Odisha 2.00
Guangxi Maoxin Technology Co. 2021 420 5,557,980 95% 7 179,870 Rio Tinto has reached a binding deal Total 9.17
produces Sc O from TiO waste acid. Source: Offi cial export statistics from Russia under Russian export classifi cation numbers 2805.30.4000 to buy the Platina Scandium Project, a
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It processes 450-ktpa of waste acid and 2846.90.3000 high-grade scandium resource in New Scale-Up is developing a process Assuming average of 45 ppm of Sc
with an annual capacity of 3-tpa of high ride; 1,200-tpa of aluminium-based  The Tomtor Sc-REE-Ta-Nb deposit South Wales, Australia, from Platina Re- for Sc-products from red mud. The fi rst and extraction effi ciency of 75%, the
purity Sc O . intermediate alloys; and 40,000 is estimated to have 1.18-mt of ore sources Ltd., for $14-mn. The project has plant will come up in Greece within the maximum potential as Sc O is 474-tpa.
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cubic meters of vanadium electrolyte resources, with Sc O content of a long life, high-grade scalable resource Mytilineos alumina plant, processing Probably half, i.e., 237-tpa may be
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Jiaozuo Rongjia Scandium Industry annually. 0.048 wt.%; that could yield up to 40-tpa of Sc O , 850-ktpa of residue, to produce 67-tpa reachable, which as 2% master alloy,
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is connected with Hunan Oriental Scan-  The third phase will include the pro-  The Kumir Sc-U-REE deposit with for an estimated period of three decades. of crude Sc concentrate. The concen- is 11,850-tpa. There is an added advan-
dium Co., and produces about 30-tpa of duction of 20,000-tpa of new high- Sc O content of up to 0.1 wt.% has At present, Rio Tinto generates Sc O trate will be refi ned at ScaVanger into tage that it would be possible to recover
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Sc O . performance aluminium alloy billets possible Sc resources exceeding from TiO processing waste streams at 22-tpa of pure Sc O , which will then vanadium and neodymium, as well.
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containing scandium and 20,000-tpa 100-tonnes; Sorel-Tracy in Quebec, Canada, with a be returned to Mytilineos’ Al smelter
MCC Ramu New Energy Technology of aluminium alloy profi les.  The Kovdor deposit, considered nameplate capacity of 3-tpa. for production of 733-tpa of Al-Sc 2% There is an inter-institutional R&D
Co. is a producer of nickel and cobalt. a large source of Sc in Russia, is master alloy. project with aluminium industry partici-
Scandium is recovered from the solid Russia estimated at 420-tonnes at 0.078 wt.% Europe pation at CSIR-Institute of Minerals
waste of the process. These ores contain Scandium production in the former of Sc O , which would secure annual Europe has two sources of Scan- Other alumina producers in EU and Materials Technology (IMMT)
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about 300-ppm of scandium. The capa- Soviet Union began in the Cold War, spe- Sc O production of up to 8-tpa. dium – from TiO waste acids and from are AOS Stade (Germany), LARCO (Bhubaneswar), which is at pilot plant
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city is 20-tpa of Sc O . cifi cally at the Nova Mine, near the town alumina red mud. EU has funded two (Greece), ALUM (Romania) and MAL stage. In contrast, the EU Scale-Up pro-
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of Zhovti Vody, in Ukraine. The Nova Rusal has announced a pilot facility projects totalling ~€ 9-mn, which have (Hungary). ject, which is very similar, has reached
Hunan Kunwell Advanced Material mine was a deep (1,000 meters) under- for the production of 1,550 kg of Sc O reached a stage where within 3-4 years a stage where a commercial lot may be
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Co. Ltd. has a capacity of 2-tpa of crude ground polymetallic resource, primarily per year, at its Bogoslovsky Aluminium the fl owsheet can be commercialized. The EU scandium market is fore- delivered by 2027.
oxides. iron ore, but also containing scandium, Smelter. The facility is scheduled to be The two consortium-based projects, cast to increase from 25-tonnes Sc O
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uranium and other radioactive minerals. commissioned by the end of 2025. The named Scavenger and Scaleup, are in 2020 to 350-tonnes in 2026 and The author believes that enough
The total Chinese capacity of Sc O The scandium resource was estimated to investment in the project is approxi- based on TiO and red mud respectively. 1,100-tonnes in 2031. Today, the EU R&D has been done and a semi-com-
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may of the order of 90-100 tpa, exclud- be 7.9-mt grading 105 ppm scandium, mately 500-mn roubles. Production will The goal of the EU is to reach strategic imports 100% of its requirement, mainly mercial scale plant to produce 1-tpa of
ing production from Bayan Obo tailings and the mine was believed to be the only be eventually scaled up to 19-tpa of independence with competitive prices. from China (~67% share of total Sc O should be a priority in India.
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as scandium recovery is part of REE primary scandium mine in operation in Sc O . imports).
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plants for which details are not available. the world. The Sc O from this source European TiO pigment plants have In March 2025, MTM Critical Metals
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was used to make lightweight, high Australia a total capacity of about 1.50-mtpa. Of India signed a non-binding MoU with
In October 2024, China commenced performance Al-Mg-Li-Sc materials for About 19 Australian companies have this, approximately 0.5-mtpa is produced India has possible two sources of Vedanta Ltd., a global giant in aluminium
construction of a Scandium-Vanadium MIG fi ghter jets. During this time, the announced plan for scandium produc- via the chloride process. ScaVanger scandium: waste acid from TiO pro- production, to explore use of their pro-
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New Materials Industrial Park, with a knowhow on scandium was tightly held tion based on nickel-bearing ores, but will use iron chloride rich solutions duction; and red mud from alumina prietary, patented Flash Joule Heating
total investment of CNY 1.08-bn, in as a proprietary military secret. production is at least 5-10 years away. from TiO production mainly from high production. (FJH) Technology to recycle Vedanta’s
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three phases. grade TiO feedstock as the scandium red mud and recover valuable metals, in-
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 The fi rst phase targets production of Today, except for Rusal, an alumi- This is illustrated by the Nyngan content of waste acid would be 60-140 As per the Jawaharlal Nehru Alu- cluding iron, alumina, titanium, gallium,
2,500-tpa of vanadium pentoxide, nium producer, in Russia the recovery scandium project owned by Scandium mg/l. The fi rst ScaVanger plant will be minium Research Development and scandium, rare earths that are locked up
60,000 cubic meters of vanadium of scandium is from uranium residues. International Mining Corp in New operated at Tronox, a TiO producer. It Design Centre (JNARDDC), India by the iron.
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electrolyte (needed for fl ow batte- The Dalmatovskoye uranium deposit is South Wales, which could be the fi rst can be adapted to other chlorine TiO 2 produces about 9.17-mt of red mud.
ries for bulk electricity storage), and probably the only operating scandium project to on stream. The separation production sites later on. This plant will The REE content ranges (in ppm) bet- As already mentioned EU has paid
50-tpa of scandium fl uoride by 2027. recovery plant. But there are three other and refi ning plant fl ow sheet was vali- be able to supply about 21-tpa of Sc O , ween: Sc 30-65, La 20-65, Ce 45-105, attention to the availability of scandium
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 The second phase will expand pro- deposits – Tomtor, Koydor and Kurmi – dated by considerable bench scale/small which represents about two-third of the Pr 4.9-6.6, Nd 15-30, Y 4-10, and Gd in waste acids of TiO production.
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duction by: 50-tpa of scandium fl uo- that are being actively pursued. pilot scale tests. The process uses high expected EU consumption in 2028. 4-8 ppm. India’s TiO production capacity is about
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168 Chemical Weekly August 5, 2025 Chemical Weekly August 5, 2025 169
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