Orbite Aluminae Inc. recently announced that, in collaboration with two European partners, it has successfully extracted what are reportedly the first commercial samples of heavy rare earth oxides and scandium from its shale clay deposit in Grande-Vallée. The company used its patented rare earth and rare metal extraction and separation process to establish process parameters and a final design for the heavy rare earth and rare metal separation technology to extract the samples.

Because this process is suitable for extracting heavy rare earths from a variety of raw materials, Orbite is thus reportedly the only company on the continent with an operational extraction technology for heavy rare earth oxides (such as dysprosium and erbium) and rare metal oxides (such as gallium, scandium and yttrium) from shale clay. Jack Lifton, a rare earths and metals expert, recently interviewed in Critical Metals Report, was quoted as saying that no other company will be ready to extract rare metals for a number of years to come.

According to Orbite, the independent evaluation of the technology for the individual extraction of rare metals and rare earths has been validated by the European group CMI-UVK and German firm MEAB. The evaluation has validated the extraction rate for certain rare earth and rare metal oxides at over 93%.

For additional information, visit www.orbitealuminae.com.