Anhydrous Scandium Chloride and Scandium Metal Production

This Phase I project will address two important processing steps in the scandium metal supply chain while building on Terves’ current capabilities and expertise. Specifically, this project will focus on the purification of calcium, a common metal reductant used for metallization, and on the production of anhydrous scandium chloride, a key precursor to high purity scandium and rare earth metal production.  Terves will use installed metal distillation equipment to purify domestic calcium ingot into higher purity feedstock calcium and utilize vacuum drying equipment to demonstrate the production of high purity, anhydrous scandium chloride. In parallel with this effort, Terves will also evaluate use of existing metal distillation equipment to improve calcium purity for use as a precursor for direct calciothermic reduction of scandium chloride or fluoride. Scandium chloride processed during this program will be sent to a subcontractor for reduction in molten sodium and tested for purity.