In a 1st, China pulls 99.9% ultra-pure rubidium from salt lake brine

Chinese scientists at the Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes (ISL), part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed a novel method to extract ultra-pure rubidium chloride (99.9% purity) from brine containing extremely low rubidium concentrations (0.001%). This breakthrough enables China to tap into its abundant but previously commercially unviable rubidium resources found primarily in salt lake brines of Qinghai province and Tibet. The new process involves a comprehensive approach including ore washing, leaching, enrichment, solvent extraction, and purification, and was successfully tested on potassium chloride from the Qarhan Salt Lake. This advancement significantly reduces China’s reliance on foreign rubidium imports, which currently stand at over 66%, mainly from Canada and Zimbabwe. Rubidium is a strategically important alkali metal used in atomic clocks, aerospace systems, perovskite solar cells, specialized glass, and medical imaging. China’s previous challenge was that over 97% of its rubidium reserves are locked in