Metals And Mining Review: Specials Magazine

Purity is a measure of quality in metal refining. Conventional processes for metal production achieve high purity with large-scale infrastructure and investments, significant energy expenditures and generate toxic emissions, waste and contaminated byproducts with a distinctive environmental signature. The process operations are specific to certain ores and are dedicated to a limited feedstock. A change in feed materials from alternative sources requires redesigning entire facilities and makes traditional approaches inefficient, dangerous and unsustainable as a steward of the environment. CVMR Corporation (CVMR) provides the highest quality refined nickel available today in an efficient, cost-competitive, environmentally neutral production that does not compromise a wide range of feed materials. CVMR’s vapor metallurgy processes selectively isolate 36 metals, including rare earth elements and transition metals, as it produces up to 52 usable forms—powders, nanopowders, coatings, complex netshapes and high-performance metal products—at 99.9999 (6N) percent purity. A proprietary closed-loop system produces no air emissions, no liquid waste or contaminated water effluent, no toxic tailings for disposition and reduces the environmental burdens of the inert residue. This rare combination of versatility, scalability and eco-friendly cleanliness puts CVMR on a shortlist of highly responsible critical metal suppliers. The success of this process isn’t the result of a single innovation but the sum of integrated systems that have produced a modern, accountable method of refining metals, developed over 40 years. Reactive gases selectively separate target metals from ore, concentrates, scrap and even finished products inside a tightly controlled reactor with conditions focused on a single element. Various feedstocks containing a target metal go through the same system without changing the fundamentals of the process. While conventional refiners juggle leaching tanks, high-temperature furnaces and custom setups for each metal, CVMR runs everything in one system and can use the same equipment for multiple metals. “It’s an elegant process. We can shift from nickel to cobalt and iron by using the same reagent and simply adjusting reactor conditions; for other elements, we have to use specific reagents,” says Kamran Khozan, chairman and CEO. CVMR’s performance was tested during the deep-earth neutrino experiment in Sudbury, Ontario and backed by a consortium of Canadian, U.S. and UK governments, for $3.5 billion U.S. dollars. The project required ultra-pure metal free of radioisotopic emissions and allowed the detection of subatomic particles emitted from the sun, racing through the solar system known as neutrinos. CVMR delivered ultra-pure tubes for the large-scale scintillation system, the purest materials tested for this significant, global scientific project. Lead scientist Dr. Arthur McDonald won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015 for his work and leadership in this project. He acknowledged the excellence of the CVMR-produced nickel tubes in assuring the system's sensitivity. The metal purity achieved has yet to be matched. ...Read more