Leaching of rare earths from bauxite residue (red mud)
Introduction. Bauxite is the major ore for aluminum production. Alumina is extracted from bauxite by the Bayer process. The waste slurry generated in this process is called red mud and its solid fraction is called bauxite residue. About 12 metric tonnes of bauxite residue is generated for each tonne of alumina produced (Kumar et al., 2006).