Indian Rare Earths Limited

IREL has set up a Rare Earth Extraction plant (REEP) producing mixed Rare Earth chloride (MRCL) Tri-sodium phosphate etc., at its unit OSCOM Odisha. MRCL produced from the above plant is processed at IREL's plant at Rare Earth Division (RED) in Aluva Kerala for producing separated High Pure Rare Earth (HPRE) Oxides/Compounds.Rare Earth processing unit having installed capacity of 11200 tpa mixed Rare Earth Chlorides was commissioned in the year 2015–16.

Manavalakurichi unit (MK)

IREL opened the division in 1963 after becoming a fully public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, IREL will carry out beach sand mining and extract heavy minerals at an area of 1,144.06 hectare in eight villages of Kanniyakumari district. It currently holds beach sand mining lease for an area of 178.06 hectare including 29.78 hectare in Midalam and Keezhmidalam,148.27 hectare in Manavalakurichi of Kanyakumari district.

IREL has a mineral manufacturing unit functioning in Manavalakurichi village near Colachel in Kanniyakumari for extracting ilmenite, zircon, rutile, monazite and sillimanite. Annual production capacity of MK mineral separation plant is 91,200 tonnes per annum (tpa) of Ilmenite and other associated minerals such as rutile, zircon and garnet.

Chavara Mineral Division

Chavara mineral separation plant is located 10 km north of Kollam and 85 km from Thiruvananthapuram the Capital of Kerala. It is about 135 km from Kochi, the major port in Kerala. The nearest airport is at Thiruvananthapuram. The adjacent area of Chavara is blessed with one of the best mineral sand deposits in the country – the renowned "Q" Grade minerals.

The Chavara mines contain as high as 40% heavy minerals extending over a stretch of 23 km in the coastal belt of Neendakara and Kayamkulam, The deposits is quite rich with ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite and is unique with weathered variety having 60% TiO2 ilmenite.

The plant has a capacity to produce 2,35,900 tpa of ilmenite and associated minerals such as rutile, zircon and sillimanite. It has a facility to produce Zirflor in sizes (-300 and -200) in the zircon opacifier plant. The plant operates on an advanced modular design with state of the art equipment in mineral separation and has a well - equipped quality control laboratory for quality assurance. It is certified for ISO 9001:2008, 14001:2004 and 18001:2007.

Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant (REPM), Vishakapatnam

This plant was opened in 2023. IREL has set up this plant for producing Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) at Visakhapatnam based on Indigenous Technology. This plant produces samarium-cobalt permanent magnets.

The plant has an annual capacity of 3,000 kg and overall cost is 197 crore. The Facility has been established based on indigenous technology developed by BARC and DMRL and using indigenous rare earth Samarium resources.

Rare Earth & Titanium Theme Park, Bhopal

IREL has established plants for production of Lanthanum, Cerium and Neodymium metals at Rare Earth & Titanium Theme Park, Bhopal.

IRERC, Kollam

The Corporate Research Centre is located at Kollam, Kerala and carries out research in the field of value added products from beach sand minerals, undertakes consultancy projects on mineral separation and flow sheet development, carrying out mineral analysis and caters to the needs of internal and external customers.

Research and development

IREL Technology Development Council (IRELTDC) is formed with an objective of promoting industrial scale research and development (R&D) that would be beneficial to the overall programme of DAE in both strategic and non-strategic fields utilizing mineral & value-added products of IREL. Council invites funds and monitors R&D project proposals from CSIR, IITs, State & Central laboratories, for large scale application & exploitation on the areas of technology of mutual interest.

List of completed R&D projects

Source:

Augmentation of PREE solvent extraction test facility at RED.

Pilot-scale production for nanosize rare earth phosphates and development of potential industrial application areas.

Design and development of environmentally secure rare earth based colorants.

Inflight processing of metallised ilmenite in a DC plasma furnace for continuous production of titania-rich slag and pig iron.

Development of cerium oxide based nano materials for applications as Chemical-Mechanical Planarisation/Polishing (CMP) slurry.

Recovery of heavy rare earths from phosphoric acid using phosphorus-based commercial extractants and their mixtures.

Synthesis and properties of electrodeposited nickel/ceria nanocomposite coatings.

Catalysis by nano Crystalline Ceria Modifies with Transition Metals.

Design and scale-up of Annular Centrifugal Extractor (ACE).

Processing of monazite through sulphuric acid for the recovery of rare earths, thorium and uranium.

Preparation of mullite and zirconia toughened mullite from sillimanite.

Study of suitability of magnetic separators as replacement for air tables for recovery of monazite.

Versatile nano zirconia production facility at IREL, OSCOM.

High-field composite varistors based on rare earth oxides.

Smart magneto rheological elastomers based on rare earth Magnets.

Production of nano titania from ilmenite and set up a pilot plant to process 1 ton/batch.

Production of environmentally secure rare earth oxide brown pigment for surface coating applications.

Optimization of processing parameters to produce high aspect ratio synthetic wollastonite.

Improving recovery of heavy minerals at IREL plants using spiral separators.

Suitability of rare earth drum magnetic separator to increase plant efficiency at IREL, Chavara.

With the help of National Metallurgical Laboratory, Column flotation technology for the beneficiation of sillimanite was successfully developed and demonstrated first at the IREL plant in Orissa. Today it is commercially operating with consistent recovery and grades, both at Chatrapur and Chavara.

With help of BARC, Cerium and lanthanum metals have been prepared by fused salt electrolysis from its phosphors, These rare earth based phosphors compounds have been separated and purified from the stock obtained from beach sands.

Capacity expansion of OSCOM plant

Increase in capacity from 2.8 to 6.2 lakh tpa of Ilmenite and associated minerals.