Water purification is yet another environmentally friendly application in which rare earths can provide a highly effective solution. A large portion of the global population is forced to drink water that is polluted with pathogens, heavy metals, pesticides or other toxic organic compounds. Against this backdrop and societal need, Molycorp began research on a material with unique chemistry that suggested broad spectrum efficacy.

XSORBX® was developed to purify the world’s most heavily polluted drinking water sources. Its broad spectrum efficacy extends to pathogens such as protozoa, fungi, bacteria, and viruses; organic toxins such as nerve active pesticides and organic acids; and heavy metals such as arsenic, selenium, and chromium. XSORBX® is proving to a extremely versatile and effective water treatment medium.

This technology was developed jointly with the United States Army for use in man-portable devices that can provide our soldiers with clean drinking water regardless of the water source. Our technology can be applied to a broad range of applications and soon will be introduced into the home water filtration and outdoor recreation markets.

Industrial Process Waste Streams
Molycorp's XSORBX® ASP, or Arsenic Sequestration Process employs the XSORBX® technology in the mining and smelting industries as a means to significantly improve management of arsenic-laden process streams. Now, a technology for removing arsenic is available that is vastly superior to anything that currently exists.

Our process allows the removal of arsenic by converting it to a concentrated and extremely stable compound for easy filtering and disposal. We do this in such a way that an operation would consume just a fraction of the volume of raw materials required by conventional sequestration methods and would produce only one-third of the waste volume.

In addition, studies indicate the stable waste compound might be classified as a non-hazardous material. Our environmentally-friendly method of controlling arsenic not only provides economic benefit to the operator it also enables a superior improvement in environmental stewardship.