Process for recovering yttrium from rare-earth metals

A solvent extraction process is described for recovering yttrium from a mixture of rare earths, including the processing of ores containing rare earths or tailings from the processing of uranium raw materials. The mixture of rare earths, in aqueous chloride form, is contacted with an organic extraction agent, in the presence of a salting-out agent or in the presence of thiocyanate ions, to obtain an extract and a raffinate, wherein the concentration of rare earth metals in the raffinate is 0.7 to 2.2 mol/l, the concentration of salting-out agent (where present) in the raffinate is 1.1 to 1.6 mol/l, or the molar ratio between the rare earth metals and thiocynate ions (where present) in the raffinate is from 3.5:1 to 230:1. The yttrium is isolated from the raffinate. The organic extraction agent may comprise one or more sulphoxides with molecular weight 129 to 244 in the presence of a non-polar organic diluent such as kerosene, a xylene, or polyalkylbenzene, and the salting-out agent may comprise a chloride of Li, Mg, Ca or Al. A number of examples are given. (U.K.)