ISO 23664:2021

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 23664
First edition
2021-10
Traceability of rare earths in the
supply chain from mine to separated
products
Traçabilité des terres rares dans la chaîne d'approvisionnement de la
mine jusqu'aux produits séparés
Reference number
ISO 23664:2021(E)
© ISO 2021

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ISO 23664:2021(E)
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© ISO 2021
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Planning a traceability system . 5
4.1 General . 5
4.2 Documented information . 5
4.3 Counterparties. 5
4.4 Unique identifier (UI) . 5
5 Operation of traceability system .6
5.1 General . 6
5.2 Primary producer . 6
5.3 Mass balance . 6
5.4 Identification . 6
5.5 Blending and mixing . 7
5.6 Recycled rare earth material . 7
5.7 Transactions . 7
5.7.1 General . 7
5.7.2 Transaction information . 7
6 Information transmitted with shipments between adjacent nodes .8
6.1 Mine . 8
6.2 Beneficiation plant . 10
6.3 Hydrometallurgical plant. 11
6.4 Trader . 13
6.5 Separation plant . 14
7 Performance evaluation .16
8 Improvement .16
8.1 General . 16
8.2 Nonconformity and corrective actions . 16
Bibliography .17
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to
the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see
www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 298, Rare earth.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
Introduction
The adoption of a traceability system is a strategic decision for an organization that can help provide a
sound basis for a sustainable supply chain. A traceability system is a useful tool to assist an organization
operating within a rare earth supply chain to achieve defined goals and objectives within their overall
management system(s). The choice of how a traceability system is defined is influenced by regulations,
product characteristics and end user expectations. The complexity of the traceability system can
vary depending on the nature of the product(s) within the supply chain, the sources of inputs and the
objectives to be achieved.
The implementation of a traceability system by an organization depends on:
— technical limits inherent to the supply chain organization and products (i.e. nature of the raw
materials, size of the lots, collection and transport procedures, processing and packaging methods);
— the cost benefits of applying such a system;
— the characteristics of mining and processing;
— the environmental impact, waste treatment and disposal processing.
The potential benefits of implementing the traceability system defined in this document are:
— the ability to trace rare earth materials and products between mine and separated products;
— reduction and prevention of pollution;
— promotion of environmentally responsible and sustainable production of rare earths throughout
the supply chain;
— to align a rare earth supply chain with sustainable development goals;
— to provide better service for users/customers by supplying quality products.
This document can be used by all participants in the rare earth supply chain. However, this document
does not specify the need for:
— complete uniformity in the structure of traceability systems for different rare earth supply chains;
— alignment of documentation to the clause structure of this document;
— use of specific terminology within the rare earth supply chain.
In this document, the following verbal forms are used:
— “shall” indicates a requirement;
— “should” indicates a recommendation;
— “may” indicates a permission;
— “can” indicates a possibility or capability.
Information marked as “NOTE” is intended to assist the understanding or use of the document. “Notes
to entry” used in Clause 3 provide additional information that supplements the terminological data and
can contain provisions relating to the use of a term.
This document describes a traceability system covering the rare earth supply chain between the
originating mine and separated rare earth products. This document is intended to give supply chain
members the ability to access information relating to rare earth materials or products as they pass
through the supply chain. This information will include the identity of each business in the supply
chain which has handled the rare earth material or product shipment. This makes it possible for the
purchasers and suppliers of separated rare earth products to identify the businesses in the supply
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
chain that process a given shipment of rare earth material, and the location of that rare earth material
as it passes between supply chain nodes.
The following types of businesses in the rare earth supply chain are considered in this document.
a) Mines, in which rare earth-bearing minerals are:
1) extracted as ore from the ground in solid form by underground, open-pit or dredge mining
methods;
2) extracted as a rare earth-bearing solution from the ground using in situ leaching/recovery
methods, or as a solution using heap or vat leaching methods;
3) extracted from tailings or other wastes that contain rare earths.
b) Recycling operations, in which waste, scrap, tailings or end-of-life materials containing rare earths
are reprocessed to produce a rare earth containing material suitable as input to a beneficiation,
hydrometallurgical or separation plant.
c) Beneficiation plants, in which solid ore containing rare earth minerals is processed to concentrate
the rare earth minerals into one or more mineral concentrates.
d) Hydrometallurgical plants, in which either:
1) rare earth mineral ore or beneficiation plant product are dissolved, and the solution processed;
2) an in situ or heap leach or vat leach solution, is processed.
NOTE In either case, the hydrometallurgical plant produces a relatively pure precipitated solid, salt or
concentrated solution, containing mixed rare earths and suitable as feed to a separation plant.
e) Separation plants, in which mixed rare earth products from hydrometallurgical plants are
separated into one or more relatively pure products each containing one or more specific rare
earths to the substantial exclusion of other rare earths. Separation plant products are further
processed into alloys, magnets, catalysts and other materials in downstream operations outside
the rare earth supply chain considered in this document.
f) Traders, brokers and wholesalers: entities that handle rare earths, generally the products of
hydrometallurgical and separation plants, possibly re-package or blend material, but otherwise do
not change the chemical or physical nature of the rare earth-bearing material.
g) Transporters: businesses that move rare earth products between different businesses in the rare
earth supply chain.
The connections between the businesses are illustrated in Figure 1.
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
Figure 1 — Overview of rare earth supply chain — Mine to separated products
Some business entities conduct more than one of these activities either at a single site or at two or more
sites. For example, it is common for a mine to own and operate a beneficiation plant, so its product is
an upgraded concentrate rather than whole ore. It is also common for a mining company to own and
operate a hydrometallurgical plant to process its ore or mineral concentrate and then ship a purified
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
mixed rare earth product to a separation plant or to a trader. Traders can be involved in the supply
chain, as indicated, but also in the marketing of mineral concentrates.
Recycled rare earth materials can be inputs at several points in the supply chain model described in
Figure 1. Recycling can comprise significant inputs or outputs for some rare earth supply chain nodes.
By their nature, it is often difficult to trace the origin of the rare earths in recycled materials, since
the recycled material can include end-of-life material from products produced many years earlier.
Consequently, it is possible that a percentage of the material in the supply chain will not be traceable
back to a source. If recycling is an important input or output for a supply chain, it is the responsibility
of the supply chain partners to define and disclose how recycling will be handled to meet the overall
objectives of the traceability system (see 4.1).
The scheme specified in this document does not provide guidance on how to account for supply chain
mass balance (see 5.3). The methodology for determining mass balance can be unique to each rare
earth supply chain. It is anticipated that some of the methodologies being developed by ISO/TC 308,
Chain of custody, will give insight into how mass balance should be defined and addressed in the context
of this traceability standard. However, until such a standard on mass balance is achieved, it will be the
responsibility of the rare earth supply chain to provide the framework and justification for their mass
balance calculations that would support their traceability claims.
The scheme specified in this document does not demand perfect traceability. There will be occasions
where whole chain traceability of rare earth materials and products is neither possible nor commercially
practical. Also, some supply chains focus on certain rare earth elements rather than on the full suite
of rare earth elements. For example, the focus can be on neodymium-praseodymium oxide (or NdPr
oxides) which is a precursor material for NdFeB magnets versus total rare earth oxides (TREOs).
Rather than providing full traceability for all the rare earth elements, some supply chains choose to
focus on this subset. These limitations and choices should be recognized and should not be taken as a
nonconformity of an otherwise conforming rare earth supply chain traceability system.
Traceability may also be viewed as bidirectional. Although the scheme specified in this document
focuses on the traceability of rare earths from mine to separated oxides, there can be circumstances
in which the backward flow of traceability information from downstream to upstream can be
advantageous. Reverse information flows from downstream users to suppliers can include information
on the distribution of rare earths in different supply chain channels and downstream use applications.
The bidirectional flow of traceability information benefits the downstream users by providing
provenance information on the rare earths incorporated into their products, while upstream suppliers
benefit through better connections with the downstream users which can allow the supplier to provide
better products and services to meet the downstream demand.
Given that rare earth supply chains operate within and between different countries and varying legal
requirements, this document cannot stipulate all the requirements for every situation. A measure
of flexibility is allowed for supply chain businesses to record further supplementary transaction
information in their own non-standardized format but following the same transaction information
requirements specified in this document.
The extension of the traceability of rare earths in the supply chain from mine to separated products is
expected. This extension beyond the separated products is important in order to provide assurance to
consumers that their products contain traceable rare earths and to align the entire rare earth supply
chain from mine to finished goods with sustainable development goals. In the immediate future, the
most logical extension would be to focus on the traceability of rare earths in the supply chain from
separated rare earth products to permanent magnets, such as NdFeB and SmCo. It is possible that other
supply chains in which rare earths are an important component, such as catalysts, will also be covered
in separate traceability standards. It is anticipated that ISO/TC 298, in tandem with other ISO Technical
Committees, will work to draft such traceability standards as a companion to this document.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 23664:2021(E)
Traceability of rare earths in the supply chain from mine to
separated products
1 Scope
This document specifies requirements for, and gives guidance on, the design and use of a traceability
system in a rare earth supply chain. It specifies the information to be recorded by supply chain
businesses for rare earth materials or products passing through the supply chain from mine to
separated products.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 9000, Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary
ISO 22444-1, Rare earth — Vocabulary — Part 1: Minerals, oxides and other compounds
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 9000, ISO 22444-1 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
beneficiation plant
node (3.8) that receives unprocessed ore from mines and produce a rare earth concentrate (3.11) using
various methods, such as gravity or magnetic concentration, or froth flotation
3.2
confidential information
information related to product traceability (3.22) that a company possesses which, although it is
possible to share with a counterparty (3.3), usually within a non-disclosure agreement, it does not wish
to become public
Note 1 to entry: Information can be considered confidential by the possessor because of legal or business reasons.
3.3
counterparty
business or other entity (3.6) that either supplies or receives rare earth-bearing materials or products,
to or from a given party
Note 1 to entry: It is possible that a party’s counterparties will be its supplier (3.19) of rare earth-bearing
materials or product, or the customer to whom it supplies rare earth-bearing materials or products.
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
3.4
data matrix code
DM
two-dimensional code that contains encoded data
Note 1 to entry: There are several data matrix systems in use including quick response (QR) code (see ISO 17367),
portable data file (PDF417) (see ISO/IEC 15438), and Han Xin code (see ISO/IEC 20830).
3.5
downstream user
customer that buys or uses, or both, rare earth materials (3.12) or products, in separated or unseparated
forms
3.6
entity
node (3.8) that exists separately from other nodes and has a clear identity of its own
3.7
hydrometallurgical plant
node (3.8) that receives ore from mines or mineral concentrates from beneficiation plants (3.1) or
solutions from in situ leach operations that extracts rare earths away from other elements by a series
of chemical or thermal, or both, processes, and generates a purified mixed rare earth concentrate (3.11)
3.8
node
rare earth supply chain business or organization
EXAMPLE Rare earth mine, beneficiation plant (3.1), hydrometallurgical plant (3.7), separation plant (3.17),
trader (3.25).
Note 1 to entry: Other nodes not identified in this document may also be considered as part of the traceability
system (3.24) if their contribution to the rare earth supply chain is substantial [e.g. sources of recycled rare earth
materials (3.14)].
Note 2 to entry: The movement between nodes is generally downstream, although lateral movements are
possible (e.g. from one separation plant to another, or upstream movement, such as the reprocessing of recycled
material scrap sources of rare earths or off-specification rare earth material). The movement of material through
a rare earth supply chain can include substantial holding periods while material is being warehoused or passing
through a process with a long residence time.
3.9
primary producer
business or company involved in primary production of rare earth ores (3.10) or rare earth materials
(3.12)
EXAMPLE Rare earth mine, ionic clay processor.
3.10
rare earth ore
naturally occurring solid material containing rare earth minerals that can be commercially exploited
3.11
rare earth concentrate
material containing a preponderance of rare earths, obtained by physical or chemical processes, and in
the form of a solid or solution
Note 1 to entry: The concentrate can be obtained from an ionic clay deposit by in situ dissolution followed by
solution purification and precipitation of the rare earths, or from an ore or concentrate by leaching followed by
solution purification and precipitation of the rare earths.
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
3.12
rare earth material
inputs to manufacturing processes containing rare earths used to produce products or more complex
or refined materials containing rare earths
3.13
rare earth containing material
material in which the rare earth content is not the primary constituent
3.14
recycled rare earth material
recycled magnets, industrial waste or scrap from rare earth permanent magnet manufactures, other
rare earth downstream users (3.5) and rare earth end-of-life recyclers
Note 1 to entry: This includes end-of-life lamp phosphors, catalysts, tailings (3.20), or other waste materials
containing rare earths.
3.15
rare earth oxide
compound that contains only rare earths and oxygen
Note 1 to entry: Generally, the formula for a rare earth oxide is RE O where x is 2 and y is 3.
x y
Note 2 to entry: Three of the rare earth oxides have different formulae, specifically CeO , Pr O and Tb O .
2 6 11 4 7
3.16
radio frequency identification
RFID
use of a device applied to or incorporated into a product for the purpose of identification and tracking
using radio waves
Note 1 to entry: The device is commonly referred to as an “RFID tag”.
3.17
separation plant
plant that receives purified mixed rare earth concentrate (3.11) either directly from hydrometallurgical
plants (3.7) or from traders (3.25) and separates the feed material into several purified rare earth
materials (3.12) that are purchased by downstream users (3.5)
Note 1 to entry: The products are purchased to produce metal, alloys, magnets, ceramics, catalysts, etc.
3.18
ship-to-party
person or business that receives goods or materials
3.19
supplier
company that produces and provides rare earth ores (3.10), rare earth concentrates (3.11), compounds,
metals, alloys or solutions for its customer
Note 1 to entry: It includes the mines, beneficiation plants (3.1), hydrometallurgical plants (3.7) and traders (3.25)
of rare earth materials (3.12).
3.20
tailings
materials left over from various processes, such as mining, beneficiation, hydrometallurgical or solvent
extraction
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ISO 23664:2021(E)
3.21
transit time
time taken between the receipt of raw material or products and the shipment of processed material or
products
Note 1 to entry: The transit times for rare earths passing through beneficiation plants (3.1) and hydrometallurgical
plants (3.7) can have a duration of days. However, the time from when rare earths enter a blending/broker/
logistics facility or a separation plant (3.17) to when the rare earths leave can have a duration of several months,
for example:
— when warehousing products with limited demand;
— when rare earths enter a separation plant and emerge as a separated product in the product warehouse after
significant processing times.
Note 2 to entry: Long processing hold times (transit times) complicate the determination of a complete material
mass balance over short time spans (e.g. less than three months).
3.22
traceability
ability to trace the origin, processing history, application, distribution or place of materials or products
under consideration
3.23
traceability data
information that can build effective links between nodes (3.8) in the rare earth supply chain
EXAMPLE Company name, product name, batch number, ex-factory date (the date on which an item left the
company’s factory), shipment mass, shipment composition.
3.24
traceability system
system or process that is designed to follow material through all phases of manufacturing and
distribution
3.25
trader
broker
blender
business, organization or entity (3.6) that receives rare earth-bearing materials and passes it on, in
whole or in part, to a purchaser, either as-received or after blending with other rare earth-bearing
materials from other parties
Note 1 to entry: Traders do not change the nature of the rare earth products.
Note 2 to entry: Traders operate at various stages of the rare earth supply chain [e.g. as intermediaries between
hydrometallurgical plants (3.7) producing purified mixed rare earth concentrate (3.11) and rare earth separation
plants (3.17)].
3.26
unique identifier
UI
unique company name, government-issued identifier or
...