LCE
Short for Lithium Carbonate Equivalent — a standard unit used to say how much lithium is in something by imagining it has all been turned into lithium carbonate, the most common traded form.
Technisch gezien: LCE, lithium carbonate equivalent, is a normalising convention that expresses any quantity of lithium — whether in ore, brine, spodumene concentrate, lithium hydroxide or metallic form — as the equivalent mass of lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) it would yield. Because lithium can be sold as carbonate, hydroxide or metal, and resources can be reported as contained lithium or various compounds, LCE provides a common basis for comparison across the supply chain. Converting between LCE and contained lithium metal, or between LCE and lithium hydroxide equivalent, requires applying the relevant molar mass ratios; failing to do so is a frequent source of inconsistency in market reporting.
Materials
laterite
A layer of deeply weathered soil or rock found in tropical regions, where heavy rainfall over millions of years has dissolved away most minerals and left iron and aluminium compounds behind. Some laterites are mined for nickel or bauxite.
Technisch gezien: Laterite is a residual weathering product formed by intense and prolonged tropical or subtropical weathering that leaches silica and soluble cations from parent rock, leaving a material enriched in iron oxides, aluminium oxyhydroxides, and sometimes nickel, cobalt, or manganese. The term encompasses a spectrum from soft, clayey saprolite at depth to a hard, indurated ferruginous crust or duricrust at the surface. In the mining context, lateritic nickel deposits are distinct from magmatic sulfide nickel deposits in both mineralogy and processing requirements: the nickel is hosted in oxide and silicate minerals rather than sulfides, making pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical treatment substantially different.
Geology
leaching
Dissolving the useful metal out of ore or crushed rock using a liquid, usually an acid or an alkaline solution. The metal passes into the liquid and can then be collected from it.
Technisch gezien: Leaching is a hydrometallurgical operation in which a lixiviant—most commonly sulfuric acid for copper oxide ores, cyanide solution for gold, or caustic soda for bauxite—is brought into contact with crushed or run-of-mine ore to dissolve the target metal selectively into solution. The resulting pregnant leach solution is then processed by solvent extraction, ion exchange, or direct electrowinning to recover the metal. Leaching is the first step in a hydrometallurgical route and is used where ore mineralogy or grade makes pyrometallurgical processing uneconomic; it is operationally distinct from smelting, which requires heat rather than chemical solvation.
Processing
light rare earth
The rare earth metals from the lighter end of the group — lanthanum, cerium and their near neighbours — which tend to be more abundant and cheaper than the heavier ones.
Technisch gezien: Light rare earth elements (LREEs) are conventionally taken as lanthanum through europium (or sometimes through gadolinium), characterised by lower atomic numbers and higher relative abundance in most deposits. They are enriched in carbonate-hosted deposits such as bastnäsite ores. The exact boundary with heavy rare earths is not universally agreed: some classifications place neodymium and samarium in the light group, others split them differently, so the division should be checked against a specific source when precision is required.
Materials
longwall
A way of mining underground where a long cutting machine shears back and forth across a wide face of ore or coal, and the roof behind it is allowed to collapse in a controlled way as the machine moves forward.
Technisch gezien: An underground extraction method in which a powered shearer traverses a long working face — the longwall — while hydraulic shields support the immediate roof above workers and equipment; as the face advances, the roof behind the shields is allowed to cave in a controlled manner into the mined-out void, known as the goaf. Longwall is predominantly used for flat-lying coal seams but is also applied to certain potash and salt deposits. It achieves high extraction ratios and high production rates but requires consistent seam geometry and is not readily applied to irregular or steeply dipping orebodies, which distinguishes it from room-and-pillar workings.
Mining