The Use of Mixtures of Extractants for the Recovery and Separation of Rare Earth Elements

A review was made of the literature data published in Russia and abroad over the past ten years on the extraction of rare earth elements (REEs) with binary mixtures of extractants of various classes. It was noted that high values of REE separation coefficients are in the most cases achieved by increasing the selectivity of the extractant mixtures used due to the formation of complexes of mixed composition in the organic phase. In addition, in some systems with mixtures of extractants, the processes of stripping metals from the organic phase are facilitated.