Fuyuan Rare Earth Ionic-Clay Separation Wastewater Recycling Project, Meizhou (China's first full closed-loop; ~20,000 t/y ammonium chloride recovered)

Guangdong Fuyuan Rare Earth Co., Ltd., in the Guangzhou-Nansha (Pingyuan) industrial transfer park in Meizhou, Guangdong, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rising Nonferrous and part of China Rare Earth Group - one of the main southern ionic-clay separators. In 2022 it relocated and upgraded its 5,000 t/y medium-heavy rare earth separation line for RMB 210 million, creating what was then China's largest medium-heavy separation plant. A wastewater system built alongside it for more than RMB 60 million made Fuyuan the first ionic-clay separation plant in China to turn its effluent into a resource. The problem Southern ionic-clay separation uses solvent extraction; regenerating extractant and washing out impurities generates large volumes of high-salinity effluent carrying extractant oil and heavy metals, with ammonium chloride as the dominant salt. The industry norm is to evaporate it into a mixed waste salt that, being complex in composition, cannot be used and must be stockpiled or landfilled as hazardous or solid waste - treated, but not utilised. Fuyuan's old plant suffered the same constraint. Process The new plant manages water on a “separate treatment, classified reuse” basis. Process effluent enters a collection tank, passes through oil and heavy-metal removal to strip out components that would upset evaporation, then goes to the concentration and evaporation workshop where MVR units crystallise out ammonium chloride for recovery. Reverse osmosis and EDI polish water for return to production. The 4,805 m2 treatment station houses stormwater, process wastewater, domestic sewage and circulating water systems under one roof, with a high degree of automation. Construction Work began on 17 January 2022; key structures topped out on 29 April, the treatment station on 18 July, and the whole line ran through on 29 September - just over eight months. The wastewater system then moved through commissioning and reached stable operation with on-spec product in early April 2023. Performance Trial operation has produced nearly 400 tonnes of ammonium chloride, analysed as agricultural grade and in some respects industrial grade. At design capacity the system recovers about 20,000 tonnes a year at over 98% purity, worth roughly RMB 20 million, while cutting production water use by more than 80%. High-salinity effluent shifts from a disposal cost to a saleable product - the first time environmental spending on rare earth separation generates positive cash flow within the same system. Significance Ionic-clay ore underpins China's medium-heavy rare earth supply, and saline effluent from separation has long been the sector's environmental weak point. Fuyuan's sequence - separate, purify, evaporate and crystallise - turns salt into product and water back into the line, a replicable model that Rising Nonferrous promotes as a state-owned green benchmark. Note The daily treatment capacity is not disclosed and is left blank; the RMB 60 million-plus figure covers the wastewater system only, not the RMB 210 million separation line. Sources: Guangdong Rising Holdings Group, July 2023, https://www.gdrising.com.cn/index.php?c=show&id=2938; Nanfang Plus, 29 September 2022, https://static.nfnews.com/content/202209/29/c6938326.html Image: The evaporation-crystallisation system in Fuyuan's wastewater recycling workshop, showing MVR units and circulating pumps (Source: Guangdong Rising Holdings Group website)