Chinese scientists have developed a novel and more environmentally friendly method for mining rare earth metals, which significantly enhances production speed and efficiency while reducing environmental impacts

A new mining method electrokinetic mining (EKM), was tested in Meizhou and achieves high recovery efficiency without damaging the environment

The technique, based on electric fields, improves rare earth recovery rates to 95% and reduces mining time by 70%

Energy consumption is decreased by 60%, and ammonia emissions are reduced by 95% compared to traditional methods

Conventional mining uses high concentrations of ammonium-salt solutions, causing environmental degradation