Techniques for refining valuable materials from aqueous sources, along with corresponding apparatuses, are disclosed. The disclosed techniques enable “green” and “conflict-free” acquisition of critical minerals. These advantages are impactful in applications including refinement of rare materials such as certain metals, especially metals necessary for production of energy storage devices required to advance environmental goals, such as in the Paris climate agreement. The inventive concepts include economically viable approaches to refinement, as well as economically viable apparatuses. In some approaches, valuable materials such as metals are refined from salts obtained from aqueous sources. Power required to refine materials is provided by renewable energy sources. Real world implementations involve co-locating a dissociative reactor with a geothermal energy plant near an aquifer with salt(s) therein. Refined minerals are produced on site. Practice of the disclosed techniques reduce or eliminate many negative environmental impacts such as those incurred by legacy mining based techniques.

The invention enables “green” and “conflict-free” acquisition of critical minerals via refinement from aqueous sources. These advantages are impactful in applications including refinement of rare materials such as certain metals, especially metals necessary for production of energy storage devices required to advance environmental goals, such as in the Paris climate agreement. The inventive concepts include economically viable approaches to refinement, as well as economically viable apparatuses. In some approaches, valuable materials such as metals are refined from salts obtained from aqueous sources. Power required to refine materials is provided by renewable energy sources. Real world implementations involve co-locating a dissociative reactor with a geothermal energy plant near an aquifer with salt(s) therein. Refined minerals are produced on site. Practice of the disclosed techniques reduce or eliminate many negative environmental impacts such as those incurred by legacy mining based techniques.

Disclosed is a method of fabricating a construction element, the method comprising the manufacturing of a construction element including a slag, wherein the slag is comprising, on a dry basis and whereby the presence of a metal is expressed as the total of the metal present as elemental metal and the presence of the metal in an oxidized state, a) at least 7% wt and at most 49% wt of iron, Fe, b) at most 1.3% wt of copper, Cu, c) at least 24% wt and at most 44% wt of silicon dioxide, SiO.sub.2, d) at least 1.0% wt and at most 20% wt of calcium oxide, CaO, e) at least 0.10% wt and at most 1.50% wt of zinc, Zn, f) at least 0.10% wt and at most 2.5% wt of magnesium oxide, MgO, and g) at most 0.100% wt of lead, Pb.

Further disclosed are improved construction elements comprising the slag.

Disclosed is a slag comprising, on a dry basis and expressed as the total of the metal present as elemental metal and the presence of the metal in an oxidized state, a) at least 7% wt and at most 49% wt of Fe, b) at most 1.3% wt of Cu, c) at least 24% wt and at most 44% wt of SiO.sub.2, and d) at least 2.0% wt and at most 20% wt of CaO, characterised in that the slag comprises, on the same basis, e) at least 0.10% wt and at most 1.00% wt of Zn, f) at least 0.10% wt and at most 2.5% wt of MgO, and g) at most 0.100% wt of Pb. Further disclosed are an improved object comprising the slag, a process for the production of the slag, and a number of uses of the slag, whereby the slag may comprise up to at most 1.50% wt of zinc and down to 1.0% wt of CaO.

The invention is a microwave gun and arc plasma torch furnace used to refine titanium, Ti, from titanium dioxide, TiO.sub.2, powder. The furnace includes high frequency microwave emitters that create a high temperature zone strongly vibrating the titanium dioxide powder, TiO.sub.2, and lengthening and weakening the valence bonds in the titanium dioxide powder, TiO.sub.2, titanium, Ti, and oxygen, O, atoms. The furnace also uses nitrogen arc plasma torch generators to generate a N.sup.+ plasma to completely disassociate the titanium, Ti, and oxygen, O, atoms into titanium ions, Ti.sup.+ and oxygen ions, O.sup., and permitting the formation of nitrogen dioxide, NO.sub.2, and melted titanium, Ti.

The invention comprises an apparatus and method of use thereof for generating a rare earth from a rare earth oxide, comprising the steps of: (1) dissociating the rare earth oxide and hydrogen gas in a reaction chamber by inductively heating the reaction chamber to greater than 2000 K to form the associated rare earth and water vapor in a reaction process; (2) driving the reaction process forward by removing the water vapor from the reaction chamber by condensing and freezing the water vapor on a first cold trap surface as water ice, where the reaction comprises: RE.sub.2O.sub.3+3H.sub.2.fwdarw.2RE+3H.sub.2O, where REO is a rare earth oxide and RE comprises a rare earth in the rare earth oxide; and/or (3) monitoring the reaction process by monitoring generation of at least one of the rare earth and the water in a control system designed for continuous/semi-continuous operation.

The invention comprises a method and apparatus for generating a rare earth from a rare earth oxide, comprising the sequential steps of: (1) reducing temperature about the rare earth oxide to less than zero degrees Celsius; (2) reducing pressure to boil off contaminant water in a powder sample of the rare earth oxide at a molecular escape velocity not disturbing the powdered rare earth oxide; and (3) heating the rare earth oxide to greater than 1000 C. in the presence hydrogen gas while optionally: (1) collecting and determining mass of a water product to determine a consumption mass of the starting hydrogen gas in a main reaction process using the equation RE.sub.2O.sub.3+3H.sub.2.fwdarw.2RE+3 H.sub.2O, wherein RE comprises at a rare earth and (2) injecting replacement hydrogen gas into the main reaction chamber up to the consumption mass.

A method of reducing metal oxides in a plasma arc torch comprising a cathode and an anode. The method comprises collecting a set of metallic oxide ore and filtering the set of ore based on a particle size. The method further comprises preprocessing the filtered ore with the application of a heat gradient or an electric current. The preprocessed ore is mixed with a composition of reduction gases. The mixture is injected into the plasma arc torch to form a post-plasma mixture. The method further comprises collecting the post-plasma mixture and analyzing the post-plasma mixture. The method also comprises separating the post-plasma mixture into a set of slag and a set of liquid.

A process and system for the extraction of metals and gases contained on planets and asteroids (mining and refining) and for space debris remediation may include geographically localizing a material to be extracted/remediated; performing a risk analysis on the material to determine whether the material presents a serious risk of instantaneous fracture or disaggregation; using the risk analysis to qualify or refuse the material; capturing and stabilizing the qualified material in an ablation cylinder on a plasma machine (PERT station); deploying multiple magnetic hydraulic cylinders around the qualified material; equalizing and stabilizing the PERT station and the qualified material; performing ablation and destruction of the qualified material; and transforming pure elements from the ablation cylinder.

A method and plant for gold recovery from any gold-bearing ore by low-temperature chlorination, wherein the finely-divided gold-bearing feedstock is chlorinated gaseous chlorine at a temperature of about 245 C. to form a highly volatile chloride compound, which after leaving a reactor is directed to a low-temperature nitrogen plasma unit having a temperature of 900-1100 C., wherein the said compound decomposes and turns into high-purity gold powder, which is cooled with gaseous nitrogen at a cooling reactor's inlet, which is equipped with a water chamber, and collected in a dumping hopper. Some embodiments allow recovery of high-purity 999.9 fine gold using an environmentally friendly, cost effective and inexpensive method implemented on an industrial scale.