United Co. Rusal Plc intends to complete a feasibility study in 2018 for the construction of a scandium oxide production unit at its Urals aluminum smelter in Russia.
The technology includes processing red mud from alumina refineries and making scandium oxide as a byproduct, the company said Feb. 6.
Rusal plans to invest about 50 million Russian rubles to complete the pilot-scale tests and complete the feasibility study to construct an industrial-scale unit.
The process is expected to lead to a 30% reduction in the capital cost of disposal areas.
A pilot unit for the technology produced the first batch of scandium oxide in 2016 with over 99% purity.
The company added improvements to the process and is now conducting additional tests on the unit to confirm the continuous recovery technique, it said.
As of Feb. 5, US$1 was equivalent to 56.82 Russian rubles.
