NIMS Finds New Method to Recover Rare Metals

National Institute for Materials Science announced on Wednesday that Dr. Kohmei Harada, Managing Director of the Strategic Use of Elements Interdisciplinary Cluster at the institute developed a technique which is applicable for promoting the recovery of rare metals from used products.

This method utilizes the ball mill, which is used to crush by ball and rolling. Charging electric devises, roughly crushed to several centimeter lengths, in ball mill. A powder less than 1 millimeter sized is formed in result of concentration of rare metal components. It is easy to treat by downstream processes when the form of metal is powder. This process leaves aluminum, copper and plastic containing boards respectively in sheet form. The institute explains, non powdered components are also easily sorted in the following process.