Some mining companies that are looking to produce Scandium as a by-product are:

Texas Rare Earth Resources (Round Top rare earths project, USA)
NioCorp Developments (Elk Creek niobium project, USA)
Orbite as by product from Alumina production (Gaspé region of Quebec, Canada); up to 60 t/year as per Preliminary Economic Assessment, 1,000 Mt @ 16-18 ppm Sc
Buckton, AB (DNI Metals Inc.) 550 Mt @ 14.3 ppm Sc (5 ppm recoverable = 2,749 tonnes Sc)
Existing /Past Production:

Bayan Obo mines, China: Up to 163 ppm Sc in REE ore tailings
Zhovti Vody mine, Ukraine (Abandon): Ore grade 105 ppm Sc, holds 775 tonnes Sc
7. Scandium: Pricing Insights

It is difficult to get a reliable Scandium price from the market as it is depending on the end product’s quality and purity. Generally prices ranging from USD$2,000-3,000/kg Sc2O3. It is expected that Scandium prices to drop as some of these projects start production due to a reliable supply of scandium becoming available however we can expect to see prices rising again as a result of increased demand from the solid oxide fuel cell, auto and aerospace industries.

Some price insight from current mining companies are:

Clean TeQ’s scoping study for its Syerston scandium deposit uses scandium oxide (99.9% purity) price assumption of US$1,500 per kilogram at an operating cash cost of AUD$571/kg Sc2O3. Average production of 42.5tpa scandium oxide over the initial 20 year mine life is considered in scoping study in 2015.
Scandium International Mining Corp. for its Nyngan Scandium Project feasibility study used an Oxide Price Assumption of US$2,000 per kilogram (97 to 99% purity scandium oxide).
Platina Resources used a US$2,000 per kilogram scandium oxide price in a scoping study for its Owendale project, released in March 2015.
USGS historical on Scandium products price is presented in Table 3 below:

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8. Scandium: Metallurgical Process Technologies for Scandium Recovery

As mentioned earlier Scandium is mainly recovered as by-product from residues, tailings and waste streams in the production of other metals. Metallurgical recovery process is combined with both hydro- and pyro processes. New technologies is under development through pilot plant tests for recovery of the Scandium from primary deposit. Here is a selective processes:

Scandium International Mining Corp. (Nyngan Scandium Project) flowsheet to produce Scandium from primary deposit

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(Adapted from NI 43-101 Technical Report published in Sedar at May 2016)

Orbite (Canada) flowsheet to produce Scandium and other Rare Earth from Bauxite Residue

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Scandium from TiO2 Process Residue: Clean TeQ’s Scandium Pilot Plant on recovering low grade Scandium recovery from TiO2 process stream (pilot contains of leaching, extraction, elution and desorption stages).

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Scandium recovery from Rare Earth deposit (based on Wang et al. / Hydrometallurgy 108 2011 100–108)
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Some other references used for this post on Scandium:

Aluminium-Scandium Alloys (http://www.cleanteq.com/metals/scandium/)
http://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/scandium-investing/scandium-production-the-problem-and-the-opportunity/?nameplate_category=Scandium Investing
Scandium International’s white paper notes

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Majid Davoodi, P.Eng.
Senior Metallurgist / Senior Process Engineer

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