The focus of this symposium will be on rare metals—less common metals or minor metals (those are not covered by other TMS symposia).such as antimony, bismuth, barium, beryllium, boron, calcium, chromium, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, manganese, molybdenum, platinum group metals, rare earth metals, rhenium, scandium, selenium, sodium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, and tungsten.
Rare metal processing will cover bio-metallurgy, hydro-metallurgy, and electro-metallurgy. Novel high-temperature processes such as microwave heating, solar-thermal reaction synthesis, and cold crucible synthesis of rare metals will be included. Design of extraction equipment used in these processes will be included from suppliers, as well as laboratory and pilot plant studies.