Chatkal Rare Earth Facility

The Chatkal Rare Earth Facility is a by-product recovery plant at the Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex in the Sary-Bulak District of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ), operated as part of the Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine. Despite its name, it does not process rare-earth ores. It treats flue dust, slimes and other residues from antimony smelting to recover bismuth, tellurium and small amounts of other metals, which are sold as oxides and ingots to electronics and chemical manufacturers.^[1] Its bismuth-refining methods were developed by the chemist Svetlana Kozlova in the Soviet period. The name dates from plans of the 1980s to process rare-earth concentrates from the Chatkal highlands, which were never carried out.^[2]

References

1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.