Rare Earth New Material Technology Innovation Center Industrial Technology R&D Center and Bioleaching Joint R&D Base Officially Inaugurated

On June 7, the Northern Rare Earth Industrial Technology R&D Center, the Rare Earth New Material Technology Innovation Center Industrial Technology R&D Center, and the Bioleaching Joint R&D Base were officially inaugurated at the Northern Rare Earth Smelting Branch (Huamei Company). Experts and scholars from Tsinghua University, the Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, Baotou Steel (Group) Corporation, and other relevant units participated in the event.

“The Rare Earth Bioleaching Joint R&D Base of the Rare Earth New Material Technology Innovation Center is dedicated to developing rare earth bio-separation technologies. By employing advanced methods such as microbial synthesis, it aims to construct an engineered microbial system to achieve efficient leaching, enrichment, and separation of rare earth tailings and urban rare earth waste. The base’s goal is to recover and prepare high-purity rare earth raw materials, establish a one-stop bio-leaching and separation process from raw materials to products, and build corresponding infrastructure and technical routes,” said Professor Liu Kai from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University. He added that a 10-ton-per-year demonstration line for rare earth tailings and a ton-per-year demonstration line for rare earth waste have already been completed and validated through testing. The project will provide innovative technical support for the green and efficient separation of rare earth tailings and waste, significantly improving the efficiency of rare earth resource recovery and product added value.

After the inauguration ceremony, attendees visited the bioleaching pilot demonstration line. Inside the facility, a vibrant atmosphere of innovation and work enthusiasm was evident. A series of groundbreaking biomanufacturing technologies have been developed here, opening new pathways for the high-value utilization of China’s rare earth resources and green, efficient production.

“Our team developed the green bio-separation technology for rare earths in 2019. It offers advantages such as high selectivity, environmental friendliness, and low cost. The core concept of this research direction is to leverage the unique metabolic characteristics of microorganisms to achieve efficient enrichment and separation of rare earth elements. The participation of major enterprises like Northern Rare Earth has provided crucial support for the project’s advancement,” said Academician Zhang Hongjie of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University. He noted that this year, Tsinghua University will collaborate with Northern Rare Earth to validate the thousand-ton-scale processing capacity of rare earth bio-metallurgy.

The collaboration model of “university-led frontier innovation + enterprise industrialization + platform-coordinated empowerment” represents the optimal integration of resources from all three parties: Tsinghua University’s world-leading synthetic biology-driven rare earth recovery technology, Northern Rare Earth’s full-industry-chain application scenarios and supporting services, and the Rare Earth New Material Technology Innovation Center’s technology transfer platform. This strong alliance effectively bridges the “last mile” from the laboratory to the production line.

“We have high expectations for rare earth bio-separation technology and hope to fully utilize the Bayan Obo tailings with this technology. Additionally, the Northern Rare Earth Technology Innovation Center is focused on facilitating the transfer and transformation of Northern Rare Earth’s technologies, as well as incubating and validating pilot projects. Several projects have already been planned, with new technologies and production lines set to be completed and commissioned soon,” said Zhao Zhihua, Chief Engineer of China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co., Ltd.

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