MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. Biotechnologies and nature-like technologies must be used to extract rare earth metals (REM) from ore, Associate Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Presidential Academy (RANEPA), the Expert Council's Coordinator at the PORA Arctic Development Project Office Alexander Vorotnikov told TASS.
"A multiple increase in new technologies is needed for the extraction and enrichment of REM, necessary for the country's economy and exports," he said. "In my opinion, one of such options is to use biotechnologies or nature-like technologies to extract REM from ore and for further enrichment."
It is possible to use natural protein lanmodulin to isolate rare earth elements from mixtures. "The enzyme did not distinguish too well different rare earth metals from each, but this may be solved in further research. The Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Murmansk Region has been working on use of biotechnologies in the extraction of REM," the expert explained.
Additionally, one of the problems Russia has in REM production is the lack of a complete production chain. The country needs to create an enterprise that could process REM as well as divide them into separate components, he added.
Earlier, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Russia is a global undisputed leader in REM reserves, adding in the rare earth metals industry the country would be happy to work with any foreign partners, including American ones.