SOS:Rare: Multidisciplinary research towards a secure and environmentally sustainable supply of critical rare earth elements (Nd and HREE)

The SoS RARE project was a consortium project funded by NERC and EPSRC under the Security of Supply of Mineral Resources (SoS Minerals) science programme, running from 2015 to 2019. The research team included 17 investigators from six UK universities and research institutes, with ten industry partners and eight core international research collaborators. The project developed from two NERC-funded catalyst grants, GEM-CREE and MM-FREE. The project aimed to improve understanding of how the rare earth elements (REE) are concentrated in natural systems, and use this information to investigate more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to extract and recover the REE. It was divided into two strands: the first concentrates on conventional bedrock deposits of the REE whilst the second focuses on ion adsorption clay deposits.