Why are rare earths in high demand?

Rare earth metals have been making headlines due to the demand for smartphones, wind turbines and other products. Governments also want to secure their supply.

What are the basic facts?

What are they?

Rare earths is a grouping of 17 elements, including 15 metals that are silvery white, called lanthanides or lanthanoids. They also include scandium and yttrium.

What are they used for?

These materials are used for a variety of products, including consumer electronics, aircraft engines, medical devices, oil refinery, and military applications, such as missiles, radars, and electronic components.

What country is the largest producer?

China is responsible for 60% of the global production of mines and 90% of permanent magnets and processed magnets. Beijing sets output, smelting and separation quotas, which are closely watched as a barometer for global supply.

What are their names?

They are in the following order: scandium (first), yttrium (second), lanthanum (third), cerium (fourth), praseodymium neodymium (fifth), samarium samarium gadolinium terbium dysprosium holmium erbium thulium lutetium.

Which ones are the most common?

Lanthanum, cerium and yttrium are the two most common rare earth elements. Lanthanum can be found in cameras and lighting. Cerium is used to reduce emissions from combustion engines using catalytic converters.

Permanent magnets for EV motors, wind turbines, and other applications are high in demand.

ARE THEY RARE?

Some are even more common than the lead. They are usually found in small amounts and are mixed with other minerals or spread thinly around the Earth crust. This makes it difficult and expensive to find larger deposits.

What impact do they have on the environment?

Solvents are often used to process rare earths. These solvents can pollute the air, the water and the soil. Although more environmentally friendly technologies are in development, they have not yet been widely adopted.

Some rare earth ores contain radioactive uranium or thorium, which are often removed with acid.

The development of this sector is hampered by health and environmental regulations. (Reporting and editing by Louise Heavens in London, Eric Onstad and Jason Neely)

(source: Reuters)