Ramesh Bhave, pictured in his chemical sciences laboratory at ORNL, has been refining a membrane solvent extraction technique for critical materials for more than a decade. The technology was recently licensed to Caldera Holding for research into its application for domestically mined ores. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
- Caldera Holding has licensed ORNL’s membrane solvent extraction technique to separate rare earth elements in mined ore.
- The company also owns the Pea Ridge iron mine in Missouri.
- The Pea Ridge mine is among the first in America shown to have relatively high amounts of dysprosium, a critical element for permanent magnets.
Caldera Holding, the owner and developer of Missouri’s Pea Ridge iron mine, has entered a nonexclusive research and development licensing agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to apply a membrane solvent extraction technique, or MSX, developed by ORNL researchers to mined ores. MSX provides a scalable, efficient way to separate rare earth elements, or REEs, from mixed mineral ores.
The MSX technology was pioneered at ORNL by researchers in the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Innovation Hub, or CMI, led by Ames National Laboratory. The inventors, Ramesh Bhave and Syed Islam of ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division are named in 26 inventions and five active licenses related to the recovery of REEs.
