University of Minnesota researchers will soon be working to develop a commercial-scale processing system to separate highly valuable titanium out of Iron Range rock, under a recently approved project by the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). Titanium is used to make high-strength alloys for spacecraft and military aircraft as well as pigments for paints and polymers.
The IRRRB approved a USD $300,000 grant to the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) of the University of Minnesota Duluth to develop the “pilot-scale” project that officials hope could lead to a new era of mining. The University of Minnesota will contribute USD $300,000 of its own money to develop the project at the NRRI minerals lab in Coleraine.
Geologists have known for decades that there is highly valuable titanium locked inside the ilmenite compound found across the Iron Range. The problem has been separating the titanium from other stuff in the rock. NRRI researchers have spent 15 years trying to solve the problem. And now, with the help of some proprietary technology of an Ontario-based company, Process Research Ortech, they think they’re heading in the right direction at the laboratory scale.