Present Status and New Ideas on Utilization of Bayan Obo Rare Earth and Niobium Resource

In this paper,the characteristics and distribution of Bayan Obo rare earth and niobium resources were introduced,and the methods of ore dressing and smelting for the resources were summarized. Based on this,two new ideas are proposed: One is extraction of scandium before niobium by using combined flowsheet of ore dressing- metallurgy; The other is preparation of composite materials by using the tailings as raw materials to improve the utilization rate of niobium.