RARE ELEMENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600200147-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2011
• Sequence Number: 147
• Publication Date: July 13, 1948
• Content Type: REPORT

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I
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
I CLiS$dr`CP.TIOP!
"Lt INFORMA
COPY
PLACE
ACQUIRED USSR
DATE Cr
IIIlONWsTIOlil 1947
SET
UNCLASSIFIED
JAN 31 1955 . - /FOB
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DATE DISTR 13 ,July 3948
NO. OF PAGES 7
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW),
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION FOR THE RESEARCH
USE OF TRAINED INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS
SOURCE Russian periocical, tdauka i Zhi.^n', No 2, 1947. (FIf3 Per Aba 30T57 --
Trenalation specifically roquested.)
t Fix: i;Lk:L1.1:'.NJ'Li IN COAL A.' 1QS
Yo` A. I9.ochko
Doctor of Chemical Sciences
'rhe Five-Year Plan for the restoration and development of the national
eaonoapr of the USSR provides for a considerable growth in the extraction
and-use of rare metals. The problem. ofa?raw material base for an industry
of rare elements is especially significant in connection this plan
at the
e
i
pi
aont t
ne.
Until rgecnt3,v, D. I. mendeleyev?s periodic syaten contained 92
elements, 90 oC which are found on the earth. The relativo content of
those elements in the obtainable Harts of the earth .Itrf..na .... ~,..
or 1!thos/nnero; and the area of distributicn of-life, t hichYis coiled A fl
biosnhern_ The latter .s....,..j
-- _ _ _
ng the
fy limiting ourselves to the elchents fUurd in each ?e 4-k- -$U ....
percent, re obtain the fallovri;y; table. :h:i elements are arranged in the
order of d
i
ecreas
ng; importiinao for each envelope (Table 1).
NAVY
AIR
STAT
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Table 1. Relative Content of Elements in Different Lnvolopes of the Larth
(According to V. I.:Iernedskiy)
=vavelope Content
Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Lithosphere
Greater than 10,%
Nitrogen,
Oxygen,
Oxygen,
oxygen
hydrogen
silicon
Greater than 1%
Argon
Chlorine,
Aluminum,
sodium
iron, calcium
magnosium, so-
diem, potassium
Granter than 0.1%
Hydrogen
Magnasium,
Titanium, hy-
sulphur
drogen, carbon,
phosphorous
l
o
l
h
su
ur, f
u
-
p
rine
Greater than 0.01% Carbon
Calcium,
Barium, man-
potassium
f;anese. chlo-.
rime, etron-
tium
Biosphere
Oxygen,
hydrogen
Carbon
Silicon, pc
tassium, cal-
ciun, nitroE^ n
Sulphur, ra
nesium, iron,
aodiun, chao-_
rive, alumin-
um, phosphorous
The 20 elenante shown in the'tahhle comprise more than 99.9 percent of
the weight of the ea,th'a crust (all three envelopes and the biosphere).
Consequently, lees than 0.1 percent of the weight of the earth's crust
is composed of the remaining- 70 elements. At first glance such a distri-
bution may appear strange. Actually, s,.ch well-known and sufficiently
widespread metals as copper, tin, load, zinc, nickel, mercury, and others
are among these 70 olementa. 4.t the same tine, we see some comparatively
unknown elemsnts,?such as titanium, strontium, and argon, among the more
widespread elements listed in the table. This is explained by the fact
that our notion of the rarity of elements does not correspond to their
relative content in the earth's crust. For example, according to various
date, the little-known element, titanium, which is not widely- used in
technology. composes from 0.4 to 0.6 percent of the weight of the earth's
crust, which is approximately 60 time more than copper, 100 times more
than zinc, and 400 times more than load. But, the last three elements ere
found In the form of rich sulphur deposits where they can be easily ex-
treated; and therefore copper, zinc, and lead neg long ago considered
ordinary metals, while titanium, widely distributed but greatly diffused
in different rocks, is considered "rare." It is clear fror..what has been
said that it is difficult to uraw an exact boundary between "rare" and
"coonon" elements.
L(ery inveetigatora refer tea a major pert of the elements as rare.
For ena?eple, Academician A. L. Foreman proposed to oonnirer 63 elements
rare, i.e., more then two-thirds of a]' those discovered on the earth.
Thoref{re, it is naturally easier to enumerate the ordinary "common"
elements, whion are considerably fewer in number. By adding 15 elements
in the order of their degree of preva?enoe in nature (chromium, zirconium,
vanadium, nickel, zinc, boron, copper, rubidium, lithium, cobalt, tungsten,
tin, kerium, yttriumm, an'beryllium) to the 19 elements in Table 1 (with.-
out argon, which is considered rare), we have the 34 elements which are most
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bromine, arsenic, mercury, iodine, antimony, bismuth, and silver, which
are leas, prevalent but better known, as ordinary elements. Thus, we
have 36 elements which will be considered ordinary or common, and tho
remaining 54 are (naturally) rare. Elements having the most diverse
proportion belong to the rare group, for example: vary activo alkali
metals -- rubidium and cesium; the so-called precious metals --
platinam, palladium; radioactive elements -- radium, thorium, uranium;
and finally some rare gases -- krypton, xenon, etc. Part of the rare
elements are presonted below (Table 2).
technology, it is more correct to consider titanium, zircoa.um, vanadium,
yttrium, tungsten, and beryllium as rare elements and to consider lead,
abundant in the earth's crust. However,` if we compare the degree of
dispersion of each element and the ease of acquiring and u,ing it in
law"
Max Content Avg-Content its Avg Content in Coefficient of
Elements, in Ashes "Rich Ashes," Earth's Crust concentration
Boron
Gormmnium
Arsenir
Bismuth
Beryllium
Cobalt
ZIiokel
Zirm
Cadmium
Load
silver
Gold
Platinum
Lithium
Soarditn
Gallium
Yttrium
Zirconium
Molybdonwn
Indium
Tin
Thelliim
The use of rare elements in industry, medicine, and Is )oratorios has
great3.y inreased during the last decade. According to U. Atkinson, the
produwtiob of a majority of rare elements increased several time from
1927 to 1937; for example, rhodium, 2.5 times; thorium and cobalt, four
lanthanides are rare, although the best known of them, corium, is more
widespread than lead and bromine.
3,000
600
3
1,000
200
11,000
500
7
1,600
70
8,000
500
5
1,100
100
200
20
0.2
1,000
100
1,000
?300
5,
?80
50
1,500
300
40
35
8
8,000
700
100
80
7
10,000
2130
40
250
5
50
5
0.5
:100
10
1,000
100
16
60
6
5-10
2
0.1
50-100
20
0.2-0.5
-
0.005
40-100
-
0;7
-
0.005
320
500
-
65
8
400
60
5
80
3-:2
400
100
15
27
7
800
100
31
26
3
5,000
190
26
500
200
15
33
15
2
-
0.1
13
-
500
200
40
13
5
5
1
0.3
17
3.
Sore elements need not be confused vith the so-called rare earth
elements or lant'L nidee. Fourteen elements belong to the letter, 13 of
tahioh lmvu been found at the present time. These have vary similar
ohemiael properties and, tobvther with lanthanum, occupy one block in the
periodic system. Cxid,a of these elements are called rare eartho. I11
-3-
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times; uranium, seven times, etc. Since 1937, the production of a number
of.?raro elements, p,rticnlar1y.uraniim,,hes increnec still. nose in, the ~W,,,,,.
The last decade before the war is characterized by increased study of
the geochemistry of rare elements, i.e., the processes of their transforma-
tion, accumulation, and dispersion in the earth's crust.
Academician V. I. Vornedskiy first showed the enormous role of living
organisms in geochemistry. Ifiany elements can be accumulated in living
organisms. The accumulation of potassium by some plants ma used long ago
as the basis for obtaining potassium carbonates, -- potash -- from the
ashes of these plants. The ashes of some sea algae serve as a rev material
fir the extraction of iodine. It, is seen from Table 1, which shows the
dispersion of elements in the biosphere, that the main component parts of
living organisms, including plants, are oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. In
the burning of plants those elements, together with nitro.;on and to sumo
extent sulphur, are removed. The percentage content of the residual
olomonts in the ashes is increased several times in comparison with their
content i.b living plants. The elementary composition of ashes of a plant
depends upon its type as wall as the conditions and medium in which it crew.
Undoubtedly the use of plant ashes will increase in the future, so
that it will be possible not only to extract potassium compounds from these
ashes, or to use them as fertilizer, but also to use them as a rew material
for obtaining rare elements. It id possible that special methods of
selection, sorting, growing, and cultivation of plant specimens with a
maximum content of the desired element will have to be applied. The ashes
still more important source for obtaining rare elements. Those ashes have
a diverse composition which is determined by all the complex and long
processes of t anefornation of plant organisms into coal.
The content of mineral substances in various coals, and consequently
their ashes, varies in very uaido limits, from one to several tenths of
one percent. Coal ashes may be looked upon as containing two ;arts: the
primary, or natural, plant ash that came from the mineral substances which
comprise the plant carbon-formime material; and the secondary, or external,
ash of coal that is formed from mineral substances which have been carried
into the coal or accumulatioi, of plant material from outsico by the wind,
water currents, etc. A large part of the secondary material distributed
in coal is irregular and can he mechanically depurated. Hanover, it to
impossible to draw a share line between these two typos of oshos as the
oomposition of the ashes of the plant carbon-forming material in unknown
and tsar' mineral substances were absorbed by the coal or precipitated in
it.from various water currents. These substances could uniformly im,)regnate
the oral 's vol%r'e of a coal bed. If the diversity in the sand tons of
;;rout o!' the pr-wry plant 'atorial and its transformation into evcl are
taken into consideration, as well as the different compositions of the
eurtruniing roaksz soil and water currents which Influence these processes w
it can be concluded that coal ashes mist contain a large trciber ofohemical
elements. Actually, in addition to the common elements of the bioaphore
listed. in Table 1, approximately 46 rare elements 'are found in coal ashb,:?.
With regard to the utilization of these ashes, various propositions
.for using than as raw material for obtaining aluminum salts; have been made.
The residue from burning anal is sometimes used as a construction material
for roads, but in the main the ashes have remained unused waste. Prior to
1930, the ashes were almost never looked upon as material containing rare
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In 1930, the Norwegian geochemist, V. N. Goldshmidt, published a work
on the diffusion of germanium in coal and the products of its processing.
Coal ashes were found to contain from 0.01 to 0.5 percent rermanium. Three
years later, a work by Goldahmidt and Peters on the accumulation of rare
elements in coal was published. The ashes of the coal of western Germany
and England were found to contain up to one percent boron, 0.1-0.2 percent
cobalt, approximately 0.05 percent gallium, up to 0.1 percent beryllium,
and Some other rare elements. It was discovered that rare elements can
accumulate in coal ashes in quantities which surpass their average content
in the lithosphere. These elements are beryllium, boron, scandium, yttrium,
lanthanum .and lanthanides, vanadium, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, copper,
sine, gallium, silver, platinum, palladium, and some others.
Table 2 compares the content of some elements in coal ashes with
their average content in the earth's crust. It is seen from the table
that the coal ashes are enriched with a number of rare elements.
Oxides of nine elements (silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, magnesium,
several elements enter into the compoaition of aches.
one of lo-.sr $lla3i m en i1 contairi?eg 4.3 percent ashes and the other of
's.,giish coal containing 0.9 perdeit ashes. ^if, resul.z:, of the anslyees
found in living organisms and in coal ashes in almost equal amounts.
Approximately 60 of the 90 elements found in the earth's crust are
the geochemistry of precious metals.
that the average coefficient of concentration of silver in coal ashes is
20, and the maximum is 50-100. The maximum coefficient of concentration
of gold has the some value. and that of platinum reaches 120. There is
of the platinum group -- wore also diaacveaed 4r. coal ashes. V. U. Gold-
shmidt found silver (5-10 grams per tor), gold (0.5-1.0 gams per ton), and
platinum (0.2-1 gram per ton) in some coal ashes. It is seen from Table c
found the: they contained up to 1.6 percent gallium, one percent Germanium,
and come other elements. The precious metals, gold, silver, and elements
zinc, cobalt,-and nialcal per ton.
The average content of sore elements (boron, beryllium, cobalt, and
others) raac%ea 100-700 grams per ton in "rich" ashes, i.e., these ashes
can serve as a raw material for industrial production of such elements.
Napecially rich ashes contain several kilograms of germanium, arsenic,
sodium, titanim., and sulphur) compose 96.29 percent of the first ash
specimen and 94.79 percent o.: the second.
Yo. Tile determined all rare earth elements together, not distinguish-
ing; thou from each other. Which of these 13 elements are found in ashes is,
therefore, unknown. If we consider that only one is present in each ash
specimen, then altogether 27 elements (not oountint; o)ygen) wore determined
in the first apecimmn,.and 30 in the second. The po;Iicr of 15 rape
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abaorptioh and precipitation from them of various substances from these
solutions). This situation can be confirmed with the application of exact
methods in studying a large number of ash specimens from various coal
deposits.
in the first and second ash specimens), zirconium (440-70o), vanadium
,700-700), nickel (1,400-100), cobalt, molybdenum (10?500), boron
8,000-10,000), and scandium (100).
In its formation process, coal c-; he enriched with any chemical
element by various methods (filtration of various solutions through it
ash specimens, and also that others wore present which wore not discovered
by the author. Therefore, the number of elements which he found in the
ashes (27 and 30) must, be considered a minimum. These ashes wore strongly
enriched with lantbanidss (800-1,200) (numbers in perontheses indicate
the content of oxide of a given element in grams of oxide r ton of ashes
elements in.tho ash specimen first ccc 3.71 ;rorcont, whilc the ~ortioi
oxides of 21 rare elements in the second specimen was 5.21 percent. Few-
ever, it must be supposed that thorn was more than one lanthanide in the
systematic study of the so-called orgenogonic rook (petroloums, bitumens,
mineral coals), the workers- of the lrel+oetory discovered a considerable
a gro of oollepauae,(p. A. Borovik, V.M. hatynakiy, G. G. Bergman, end
oth-ars) under the direction of Corresponding Member of the Acadrn of
Sciences of the UI33.R, A. P.,Yinsgradov, a former student of V. I. Vernad-
founded in 1929 by Academician V. I. Vernedskiy.and now the Laboratory
of Gooaherica'.Problems imeni V. I. Vernadskiy, is the only institution
in the world that studies the regularities in distribution and laws of
transformation of chemical elements in the biosphere. The Processes of
accumulation of rare elements th-coal are studied in the laboratory by
During recent years the study c: ashes of combustible risrala and
particularly coal has boon widely developed in the Soviet Union.
The works of the Russian geochomists, Academicians V. I. Vornmdskiy
and A. Y4 reranan (and their students), gained world redognition for them.
The hiogecohemicel laboratory of the Academy cS Sciences of the ttSR,
concentration of tin in ashes of some beds was almost high enough for
Industrial purposes. This circumstance can be used to direct prospecting
..__,. n__ a?
was also found. Vans'. um is contained in the n.rhea of Chelyabinsk coal.
Go-wmanium and gallium arr. cun'Jainad z.a the hnurarin (northiorn Caucasus)
coal. Tin was discovered in ashes of coal of the Kusnete Basin, whore the
Cool which contained a considerable quantity of vanadium and germanium
from aqueous !solutions by decomposing plant notorial in the process of coal
it possible to evplain the art. ir: of the germanium. The socu Oetion cf
In this, artSole we have been limited to the premsntntion of the
questton-ef rare elements in coal ashes. However, the ashes of petroleum,
past, lignite, and other combustible minernla are of equal interest.
The study of ashes of coal and lignite, peat, slates, and ;'ctroiriums
undoubtodly has great prospects for us. The presence in the Soviet Ur-icn
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of suormous.sucplies of combustible minerals and the increneinr, ertrnetion
of them guarantees large supplies of raw material in the form of ashes
which contain hundreds and thousanda of tons of rare and dispersed ele-
ments ns~eaeary to the natioral economy.
The systematic study of this type of raw material, apart from the
possibility of using the valuable substances contained therein, will
increase our knowledge of the behavior of various elements in the earth's
crust and give a powerful impetus to the further development of bio-
ehemiatry in our country.
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