Impacts of ion-adsorption rare earth's leaching process on resources and environment

Production technologies for ion-adsorption rare earth, including heap leaching and in-situ leaching, invariably cause some environmental damage and resources losses. In order to compare the heap leaching and in-situ leaching with its environmental damage and resources losses, this paper for the first time categorizes the resources losses out of mining and dressing ion-adsorption rare earth into temporary losses(e.g. the resource remains in mines or in tailings piles) and permanent losses(e,g. the leakage resource caused by poor developed ore deposit base plate or artificial baseboard with limitations)based on the production technology principles of heap leaching and in-situ leaching. And the environmental damage is classified into explicit damage(e.g. vegetation deterioration, soil erosion ,tailings pile or stope landslide) and implicit one(e.g. the underground water pollution). The resources losses and environmental damages are hierarchically classified in terms of theircontrollable degrees. The impacts of heap leaching and in-situ leaching technologies on resources and environment are comprehensively compared and contrasted. Some relevant proposals are accordingly put forward.