Mineral undergoes self-healing of irradiation damage

Several minerals suffer radioactive self-irradiation and experience long-term changes to their properties. The mineral monazite behaves like Camembert cheese in which holes are drilled: existing radiation damage heals itself. ...

Designer molecules may help valuable minerals float

Critical Materials Institute researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Arizona State University have studied the mineral monazite, an important source of rare-earth elements, to enhance methods of recovering critical ...