Indian Rare Earths

This plant, the first unit of IREL, was made operational way back in 1952 for processing of monazite, whose capacity was subsequently increased by about three times. Rare Earths Division (RED), Udyogamandal, Aluva is located on the banks of river Periyar in Kerala at a distance of 12 kms from the port city of Kochi and 15 kms from Kochi International Airport.

In the year 2012, the plant was refurbished to process mixed rare earth chlorides. It produces high pure individual rare earth compounds of lanthanum and cerium in oxide and carbonate form, and that of neodymium-praseodymium, samarium, gadolinium and yttrium in oxide and oxalate form (with more than 99% Purity). RED also produces strategic materials for the Department of Atomic Energy.[5]

IREL commissioned its largest division called Odisha Sand Complex (OSCOM)[6] at Chhatrapur, Odisha.[7][8] Today IREL operates these four units along with a corporate office in Mumbai[9] and a unit located in Manavalakurichi of Kanyakumari district.[10] It produces/sells six heavy minerals namely ilmenite, rutile, zircon, monazite, sillimanite, and garnet as well as various value added products.

From 1 May 2015 it started commercial operation of Monazite Processing Plant at Orissa to process 10000tpa monazite to produce 11220tpa of rare earth chloride, 13500 tri-sodium phosphate, 26tpa NGADU etc. Similarly High Pure Rare Earth facility also commenced operation to refine pure rare earth compounds. In 2013 Gopalpur port shipped 7,500 metric tonne of ilmenite from Orissa Sand Complex (OSCOM) to South Korea for the first time after IREL started the operation.[11] Monazite deposit in Odisha contains rare earths like, Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, Neodymium etc. It also contains Thorium which is a "prescribed substance", the list of which was revised in 2006 under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.[12]

IREL has set up a Rare Earth Extraction plant (REEP) producing mixed Rare Earth chloride (MRCL) Tri-sodium phosphate etc, at its unit OSCOM Odisha. MRCL produced from the above plant is processed at IREL’s plant at Rare Earth Division (RED) in Aluva Kerala for producing separated High Pure Rare Earth (HPRE) Oxides/Compounds.Rare Earth processing unit having installed capacity of 11200 tpa mixed Rare Earth Chlorides was commissioned in the year 2015-16.[13]

IREL opened the division in 1963 after becoming a fully public sector undertaking under the administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy(DAE), Government of India, IREL will carry out beach sand mining and extract heavy minerals at an area of 1,144.06 hectare in eight villages of Kanniyakumari district.It currently holds beach sand mining lease for an area of 178.06 hectare including 29.78 hectare in Midalam and Keezhmidalam,148.27 hectare in Manavalakurichi of Kanyakumari district.

IREL has a mineral manufacturing unit functioning in Manavalakurichi village near Colachel in Kanniyakumari for extracting ilmenite, zircon, rutile, monazite and sillimanite.[14]Annual production capacity of MK mineral separation plant is 91,200 tonnes per annum (tpa) of Ilmenite and other associated minerals such as Rutile, Zircon and Garnet.[15]

Chavara mineral separation plant is located 10 kms north of Kollam and 85 kms from Thiruvananthapuram the Capital of Kerala. It is about 135 kms from Kochi, the major port in Kerala. The nearest airport is at Thiruvananthapuram. The adjacent area of Chavara is blessed with one of the best mineral sand deposits in the country – the renowned “Q” Grade minerals.

The Chavara mines contain as high as 40% heavy minerals extending over a stretch of 23 kms in the coastal belt of Neendakara and Kayamkulam, The deposits is quite rich with ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite and is unique with weathered variety having 60% TiO₂ ilmenite.

The plant has a capacity to produce 2,35,900 tpa of ilmenite and associated minerals such as rutile, zircon and sillimanite. It has a facility to produce Zirflor in sizes (-300 and -200) in the zircon opacifier plant.The plant operates on an advanced modular design with state of the art equipment in mineral separation and has a well - equipped quality control laboratory for quality assurance. It is certified for ISO 9001:2008, 14001:2004 and 18001:2007.

This plant was opened in 2023. IREL has set up this plant for producing Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) at Visakhapatnam based on Indigenous Technology. This plant produces samarium-cobalt permanent magnets[16][17]

The plant has an annual capacity of 3,000 kg and overall cost is 197 crore.The Facility has been established based on indigenous technology developed by BARC and DMRL and using indigenous rare earth Samarium resources.[18]

The Corporate Research Centre is located at Kollam, Kerala[19] and carries out research in the field of value added products from beach sand minerals, undertakes consultancy projects on mineral separation and flow sheet development, carrying out mineral analysis and caters to the needs of internal and external customers.[20]

1. Augmentation of PREE solvent extraction test facility at RED.
2. Pilot-scale production for nanosize rare earth phosphates and development of potential industrial application areas.
3. Design and development of environmentally secure rare earth based colorants.
4. Inflight processing of metallised ilmenite in a DC plasma furnace for continuous production of titania-rich slag and pig iron.
5. Development of cerium oxide based nano materials for applications as Chemical-Mechanical Planarisation/Polishing (CMP) slurry.
6. Recovery of heavy rare earths from phosphoric acid using phosphorus-based commercial extractants and their mixtures.
7. Synthesis and properties of electrodeposited nickel/ceria nanocomposite coatings.
8. Catalysis by nano Crystalline Ceria Modifies with Transition Metals.
9. Design and scale-up of Annular Centrifugal Extractor (ACE).
10. Processing of monazite through sulphuric acid for the recovery of rare earths, thorium and uranium.
11. Preparation of mullite and zirconia toughened mullite from sillimanite.
12. Study of suitability of magnetic separators as replacement for air tables for recovery of monazite.
13. Versatile nano zirconia production facility at IREL, OSCOM.
14. High-field composite varistors based on rare earth oxides.
15. Smart magneto rheological elastomers based on rare earth Magnets.
16. Production of nano titania from ilmenite and setup a pilot plant to process 1 ton/batch.
17. Production of environmentally secure rare earth oxide brown pigment for surface coating applications.
18. Optimization of processing parameters to produce high aspect ratio synthetic wollastonite.
19. Improving recovery of heavy minerals at IREL plants using spiral separators.
20. Suitability of rare earth drum magnetic separator to increase plant efficiency at IREL, Chavara.

New carbonatite deposit in Gujarat. Technical feasibility and economic viability studies undertaken.

Setting up of new mining and mineral separation plant for winning beach sand mineral deposits in Puri District of Odisha.

Conversion of IRELs Private railway siding to Private Freight Terminal

Increase in capacity from 2.8 to 6.2 lakh tpa of Ilmenite and associated minerals.