final dissertation 160417 (with front cover)
TRANSCRIPT
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Why are Rare Earth
Elements so Important in the
21st Century?
Kyran Whymark
Extended Project Qualification
Palmer’s College 2016
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Abstract
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are found within naturally occurring rocks and the use of these
processed elements have become of increasing importance in modern technology
throughout the world today. However, as the usable supplies of these elements are
currently limited to a few places on Earth, mainly in China, the resources have become
economically as well as politically important across the modern world.
The unusual chemical and physical properties of REEs means that the elements have many
applications as they are found in most modern technologies, big and small: aeroplanes, cars,
mobile phones and watches, to name a few. Clearly, REEs have a tremendous impact on the
daily lives of most people across the world without them even knowing what they are and
how they are used. Unfortunately, REEs appear to be a finite resource and when they are
found in sufficiently high concentrations for companies to make a profit the mining and
extraction processes are often responsible for huge amounts of environmental damage
which can affect different ecosystems across the globe. Today engineers and scientists are
exploring more efficient methods to mine more productively, reduce the use of REEs within
products, improve the recycling processes, explore the uses of the least used REEs that are
more abundant within the Earth’s crust and finally develop alternative technologies.
This dissertation outlines how the importance of these elements is increasing as the 21st
Century progresses. It provides a basic awareness of how the elements are mined and
refined and details the devastating ecological affects shown by pollution. Lastly, it reviews
what the future holds for modern technology as the worldwide consumption of REEs
increases against a backcloth of a Chinese monopoly regarding the provision of these
remarkable processed resources.
Literature Review
Searching the internet on the subject of Rare Earth Elements quickly unearthed a wide
range of technical papers, articles, dissertations etc. along with a few documentaries and
video clips aimed at the academic audience but few provide a basic introduction to Rare
Earth Elements aimed at an audience that would have little or no understanding on this
topic.
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After further, more intense investigations by cross referencing from other sources, the
following provided an introduction to the Rare Earth Elements. ‘Investor Intel’ is a website
which has created the ‘Rare Earth Element Handbook’. This contains the basic geological
facts about each element such as the date of discovery, what minerals the elements are
found in and chemical data such as atomic radius size and mass - far more details than
normally found on a periodic table – however it should be noted that this has been written
as background information for traders of commodities in the worldwide market.
Nevertheless the website and handbook provide an excellent overview to Rare Earth
Elements across the world, is well laid out and it is, therefore, easy to obtain information
due to the layout of the pages.
Another two books are well worth mentioning when as they also provide a good
introduction to REEs, The first is, ‘A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe’
by Theodore Gray, 2012. This covers similar but additional information about every element
on the periodic table. Theodore Gray is an author with a science background from the
University of Illinois and therefore not an expert geologist in this field but the detailed
information on each element is well laid out and easy to extract. The other book, ‘The
Periodic Table - A Field Guide to the Elements’ by Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon, 2013 has a
similar layout but describes the history of each element known to exist and also provides
additional basic information useful for those studying REEs. (Gail Dixon is an editor writer
and Dr Paul Parsons is an author of good repute writing for Nature and the New Scientist)
Visiting the Natural History Museum gave me an incisive view on the minerals and rock ores
that can be found within the Earth’s crust as there are many minerals displayed within
cabinets throughout the Earth section of the museum with curators on hand to answer
queries. I was also able to purchase some books with helpful information from their shop
and I used them for my project where they were displayed at the EPQ fair.
My visits to the University of Leicester and the University of Birmingham on UCAS open days
were also very informative as I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to material
scientists that specialised in this area. I briefly discussed my project during both visits and
talked about various up-to-date aspects and this widened my understanding of the
worldwide issues regarding the demand and supply of Rare Earth Elements
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As previously mentioned, there are many other sources of information on the internet.
Websites such as; Benjamin Weiss, 2010, Zhengzhou Sebon, 2011 and Asian Metal,
Metalpidea all contained relevant information but these websites are not designed for
people with limited knowledge of this subject. Many of these sites are designed for people
with an in-depth understanding of engineering, geology and chemistry so I found it quite
hard to understand some of the key words and concepts even though I have an interest in
all of these areas. However, Lesley Stahl, an American news journalist, produced a helpful
article in 2014 on CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ programme. The programme is an overview on how
the seventeen rare earth elements affect our daily lives in the 21st Century. It also includes
the current situation with China having a virtual monopoly on the global market and the
political implications of that worldwide. The Stahl programme, which was originally
broadcasted to the American people, highlighted the possible problems for the USA being
reliant on China with regard to the mining and processing of rare earth metals, especially
heavy rare earth elements. They discussed what this could mean for the development of
technology and the impact this could have economically and politically. However, her report
appeared very biased as it was prepared for consumption in the USA and no other countries
were taken into consideration but nevertheless the information and the possible impacts of
the a virtual Chinese monopoly are well explained.
An extremely useful publication for my dissertation was written by Nic Bilham, 2015 for the
Geographical Society – ‘What the future holds for Rare Earth Metals’. The information is up
to date and includes a wide range of factual data that is relevant to all the sections of my
dissertation. Nic Bilham is the Director of Policy and Communications at the Geological
Society and as such this document, from a reliable source, was published to provide a
‘briefing note on these vital mineral resources, to help to inform debate among scientists,
policy-makers, potential investors and other industry players’. Clearly, what the future
holds for REEs is being debated by top scientists and economists throughout the world. The
Rare-Earth issue, the supply and demand balance, has received considerable attention and
several publications have taken stock of the situation. To summarise - there appear to be
several opposing theories that either state that modern technology will or will not be
hampered by any shortage of the elements from the main global provider (China), either
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from research and/or from the opening of new mines or the future will have shortages in
the short or long term.
Nic Bilham, 2015 was optimistic as he suggests that there will not be any shortages in the
short term but there may be shortages in the long term if no alternatives to the elements
are developed. Writing in the Wall St Journal Asia 2014, Joseph Stemberg, the Editorial page
writer, also suggests that there will not be any shortages because as the demand for the
elements grows, more research will take place encouraging research into more efficient
ways to extract the elements and new mines will open. In addition he says that scientist will
be looking to eliminate Rare Earth Elements from applications, recycle more and substitute
less abundant Rare Earth Elements for more abundant ones.
However, as the debate continues other opinions are being presented. Marc Humphries, in
his 2013 paper ‘Rare Earth Elements: The Global Supply Chain’ written for the US Congress
and Dr Karen Smith Stegen of Jacobs University , Bremen, Germany wrote in her 2014 paper
‘Heavy Rare Earths, Permanent Magnets, and Renewable Energies: An imminent crisis’, say
that there will be REE shortages. They both indicate that China’s monopoly on processing
capacity and supply chains will cause a devastating effect as they lower their exports and
increase the price of the elements and both advocate actions to be taken to minimise the
effect.
Having to take into consideration what each author suggests about the future from their
partly opposing points of view is a challenge in itself but it becomes even more so as many
other publications propose further alternatives. For example, Dr Artem Golev, Postdoctoral
Research Fellow at the Sustainable Minerals Institute in Australia, says in his paper ‘Rare
earths supply chains: Current status, constraints and opportunities’ 2013 that none of these
reports on Rare Earth Elements are very accurate on future challenges for Rare Earth
Elements, and rare earth related industries. His main message is clear, that too many
articles treat all Rare Earth Elements the same although some are a lot rarer than others and
different technologies use different REEs.
After believing that this dissertation would be very factual and informative I have entered
the realm of debate as the future for Rare Earth Elements and their applications can be
difficult to predict. Some writers have also pointed out that rare earth metals, like
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Samarium, which was extensively used in the past, is now rarely used. Other rare earths like
Neodymium and Dysprosium that were rarely used thirty years ago are now in very high
demand as uses for them has increased.
Another variable is mentioned in the Darmstadt report, January 2011 prepared by Dr Doris
Schuler and others called ‘Study on Rare Earths and Their Recycling’. This says that improved
recycling will go a long way to make more out of the resources available, in addition, it also
mentions the positive effects of researching new applications to reduce the need for certain
elements. Progress in this area would potentially reduce the need for mining but this is a
theoretical paper without evidence of practical implementations.
Conservation of the environment is yet another issue that may affect the future availability
of REEs as mining and refining processes create a number of environmental risks to human
health and the environment. The severity of these risks varies due to the mine plant
operations as well as the contaminants that are controlled by the features of the geologic,
hydrologic, and hydrogeologic landforms. Although waste handling methods differ in
different countries around the world, there is very limited data on human health, toxicity,
biomonitoring, and ecological studies on waste materials from mining and processing REEs.
Most of the studies stated mixtures of REEs, rather than individual elements which could
cause misleading data as some of the elements may cause more environmental harm than
others. I found that some studies were conducted in regions within China where ore mining
takes place. However, this meant that most of these studies were not available in English
(only the abstracts were available in English) and this could be misleading.
Clearly, much of the literature about Rare Earth Elements can give only partially accurate
information about mining, processing, recycling and the environmental damage caused by
Rare Earth Elements. In addition, research into the applications for the use of the metals
and the combination of these to existing and new technology continues to change at a pace.
However, I am inclined to agree with Nic Bilham in that solutions will be found to continue
developing modern technology in the long term by locating new deposits and researching
different applications.
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Figure 1.0: Periodic table highlighting
the REE
An introduction to Rare Earth Elements
What do cars, x-ray machines, nuclear control rods, microphones, vehicle window wipers,
mobile phones and TVs all have in common? They all contain processed Rare Earth
Elements. Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are found in literally every piece of modern
technology that you can name yet strangely most people have never even heard of them.
This is strange because society has become so dependent on these metals that our everyday
lives would simply grind to a halt without them.
The Rare Earth Elements are also
known as Rare Earth Metals (REMs)
and are located within the
lanthanide series at the very
bottom of the Periodic Table. These
elements are classified as metals
and have atomic numbers 57
through to 71 with the exception of Scandium-
21 and Yttrium-39. (Ames Laboratory, ‘What
are the Rare Earths?’ 2009)
The names of the Rare Earth Metals (REMs) are either taken from the names of Greek Gods
or after the Scandinavian chemists that discovered them. (Hank Green, 2012) The first
element was discovered in 1794 in the Yitterby Mine, Sweden. The Swedish Army
Lieutenant, Carl Axel Arrhenius, collected a black dense mineral in 1787 near the small
feldspar and quartz mine at Yitterby and he sent the sample to a friend for analysis. (‘A Field
Guide to the Elements’ by Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon, 2013) After causing a considerable
amount of confusion for many chemists, the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin discovered that
approximately 38% of the mineral, now called gadolinite in his honour, contained a new
Earth Element which was given the name Yttrium after the Yitterby Mine where it was first
found. (‘Rare Earth Element Handbook’, Investor Intel, 2012) The last element was
discovered in 1945 after being purified from radioactive by-products from the nuclear fusion
of Uranium and this was named Promethium after the Greek God who brought fire down
from Olympus to mankind.
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The chemistry of these metals is so complex that it took 151 years from the discovery of the
first Rare-Earth Element in 1794 until the final element was discovered in 1945. Most of the
elements are found in carbonates or in their rock ore form. One of the most common rock
ores of the lanthanide series is Bastnasite which rarely appears in the leading mineralogy
texts. (‘Tasman Metals LTD’, 2010) The reason for this is due to the fact that minerals and
rock ores containing even traces of the elements are rare to experts.
Strangely, despite using ‘rare’ in the name ‘Rare Earth Elements’, the elements are actually
very abundant within the Earth’s crust. If you were to walk outside and scoop up a spoonful
of dirt you would probability find traces of the elements but in extremely low
concentrations. Each element is more common in the earth's crust than silver, gold or
platinum, while cerium, yttrium, neodymium and lanthanum are more common than lead.
(Kira Kay, 2010) However, there are very few places across the world that contain rock ore
deposits in high enough concentrations to actually mine and extract the elements. Finding
more suitable deposits is one of the least known pressing issues that the world faces today
as the elements are needed in the manufacture of most modern technology.
There are a wide range of applications for REMs, however, each of the 17 metals has its own
specific properties and each of these can bond to other atoms like oxygen or halogen to
form compounds with yet different properties. This means that the number of combinations
of the Rare Earth Elements that can be synthetically made are literally limitless with each
compound having a range of uses. Clearly, the world’s technological advances would not
have been possible without these elements and scientists are still investigating new uses for
them. (‘Rare Earth Technology Alliance’, 2013)
One of the most widely used elements is neodymium which can be found in wind turbines,
car windscreen wipers, the mobile phones and even in loudspeakers. Ask yourself, could you
live without your mobile phone or television? More seriously, Neodymium is also used to
make special glass that transmits the tanning rays of the sun (UV radiation) but not the
unwanted heat rays (infrared radiation). This means that the metal can be used in medical
lasers for curing skin cancer and making life-changing eye surgery possible as UV radiation is
used in the treatment and the body does not get affected by the harmful heat rays in the
procedures. Extremely strong permanent magnets, which have thousands of applications,
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are also produced by combining neodymium alloy with iron and boron. You can find these
magnets in your computer hard drives, drive motors for hybrid and electric vehicles and
electronic motors. You can even find neodymium in day-to-day cordless tools, locks for
doors and sometimes in children’s toys as little magnets.
Cerium is the most abundant of all of the Rare Earth Metals as it can be found in a range of
minerals within the Earth’s crust such as Bastnasite and Monazite. (Theodore Gray, 2012)
This element can be found in hundreds of applications such as in catalytic converters which
are located after the combustion in an engine just before the exhaust in various motor
vehicles. Without cerium making catalytic converters possible, most vehicles would be
emitting vast quantities of pollution into the atmosphere. (Dave Gent and Rob Ritchie, 2008)
None of this would be possible without rare earth elements. Cerium also has other
applications such as in cigarette lighters, as the element sparks when struck; low energy
light bulbs to save energy and within TVs as the element improves the colour quality on the
screen. Cerium oxide is also used to polish glass as the compound is a decolourant which is
extremely useful for cleaning windows or your glasses!
Europium is another common REE and its main property is being fluorescent under
ultraviolet light. It is an important component in the production of bank notes used in
Europe, hence the name Europium. It is also used to prevent fraudulent bank notes getting
into circulation. This element glows red under UV light and is consequently used in TVs to
enhance the colour red. (Lesley Stahl, 2014) This REM is also used as control rods for nuclear
reactors as the metal is able to absorb neutrons during nuclear fission as europium is able to
form various isotopes. Some of europium’s isotopes are radioactive and can be products of
nuclear fission within the reactor chamber of a power station. These radioactive isotopes
can then be used for research and medical purposes.
A rapidly developing aspect of REEs is that one of their main uses is in green technology
which is commonly known as ‘environmentally sustainable technology’ (EST) as very little or
no carbon dioxide emissions are released when creating large amounts of energy. (Kenny
Chan, 2014) This is such an important issue for the world today as hydrocarbon fossil fuels
are the world’s most common source of energy from the combustion of coal and crude oil.
Crude oil is a finite resource and the combustion of the substance contributes towards
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Figure 2.0: Bar graph displaying worldwide
reserves of REE by country.
climate change, global warming and global dimming as greenhouse gases are emitted.
Currently, scientists are developing new ways to create large amounts of energy on an
industrial scale all thanks to the REEs to prevent the consequences of using non-renewable
resources for our energy supplies. (Dave Gent and Rob Ritchie, 2008) Without these
elements scientists could not have developed hybrid cars, catalytic converters, wind
turbines and nuclear power stations which all limit climate change and reduce human
impact on the environment.
Clearly, Rare Earth Elements have such a massive impact on our lives that we simply could
not live in the same way without them. They are found everywhere in our everyday
technology, in alternative energy sources, in crucial parts of our infrastructure, in cars,
hospitals and even in our kitchens!
Mining and Refining
As technology has developed so has the
world’s need for REEs. All of them have to be
mined in areas of relatively high
concentrations for mining to be successful
and there are very few deposits across the
worlds that contain rock ores or minerals in
sufficient concentration for this to happen. In
addition, once located, there are many
environmental concerns with the mining of
these elements at each stage (mining, refining and
then the disposal of the waste products) as each can
have its own unique negative effect on the
environment.
Currently China has the largest deposits of all the 17 REE found on Earth and China is also
currently the largest producer of the metals controlling 95% of the world’s REE market. On
the other hand the USA is the second largest ‘producer’ at approximately 2%. This means
that the USA and the rest of the world are almost completely dependent of China’s exports.
(Philip Alexiou 2011)
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Figure 2.2: The REE processing
cycle highlighting the main stages
during this process
The extraction of Rare Earth Rocks
mainly takes place in open quarried
mines using heavy machinery as they
are found within the top layers of the
Earth’s crust. The standard large scale
mining techniques used involve ‘drill,
blast and haul operations’ (Asian
Metals) and deciding on a site for the
extraction of REEs is influenced by the
minerals in which they occur; how easily the element
can be extracted; the types of rock in which these
minerals are found and the most promising geological as
well as sociological/environmental settings.
Obviously the rock ores that are extracted do not come out pure and need to be extensively
refined. The raw extracted material is refined into pure Rare Earth Metals by removing any
impurities and this is usually done close to where it has been extracted to limit the cost of
transportation in a nearby industrial complex where the process of beneficiation takes
place.
Figure 2.1: Shows the global
distribution of Rare Earth
Elements
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The beneficiation process starts with the minerals being put into a jaw crusher mill to break
the solid rocks into smaller pieces. This leads on to the ball mill, large spherical shaped
stones or metal balls which crush the material into fine particles. The leaching process takes
the mineral particles and produces a liquid sulphate, nitrate, or chloride (RECl₃) substance of
the finely crushed rare earths. For transportation, for further removal of impurities, the
chloride is usually turned into a solid carbonate. Rare earth chloride, or carbonate, is
generally not considered a saleable product outside of China as few countries are able to
separate the mixed chloride concentrates into rare earth oxides of individual elements (e.g.
Nd₂O₃) using a process called solvent extraction. Having been separated the oxides are now
the first economically saleable rare earth products in the worldwide value chain, however,
the oxides still need to be converted into high purity metals (e.g. Nd metal) or alloys of rare
earths (e.g. mischmetal or ferro-alloys). Purifying the oxides is yet another difficult task as
the elements have very similar properties which make them hard to separate. This means
that further complicated and expensive methods of separation need to be undertaken to
obtain the pure metals for use by manufacturers.
Clearly, the mining and refining process is incredibly complex and expensive as there are
many stages and huge amounts of electricity and thousands of gallons of water are
required. The actual physical process of removing ores from the ground also disturbs
thriving ecosystems in the environment around any mine. In addition the methods used to
refine the elements produce a great deal of
waste, particularly radioactive waste, which can
have a devastating effect on the environment if
not dealt with adequately. The main danger is
that ‘once radioactive waste is released into the
air, ground or water, it is impossible to remove’.
(Jonathan Kaiman, 2014)
The main waste by-products from this mining
are of two types; tailings (a mine dump) and
waste rock stockpile. The tailings are of most
concern as they are full of small, fine particles that can be absorbed into water and the
surrounding ground. The contamination of water is then the main concern as once it is
contaminated it is difficult to return it to its original state.
Figure 2.3: Polluted water discharged
by a small rare-earth mining company
in rural Baotou.
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Such damage can be seen in China. This country started mining in the 1980s and after two
decades of lax regulations it has only just begun to address the environmental issues that
the mining has caused. As previously mentioned, China produces the largest quantity of the
elements crucial for manufacturing modern technology and 50% of this comes from Baotou,
China’s rare earth capital where 2.5 million people live. Consequently it has the world’s
largest tailings pond owned by the Inner Magnolia Baotou Steel Rare Earth Hi-Tech
Company. This pond does not have a proper lining and for the past 20 years its toxic
contents have been seeping into ground water supplies which feeds the Yellow River, a
major drinking water source for most of Northern China. The actual area near Baotou has
been so polluted that the air, land and water are saturated with chemical toxins and the
Chinese have had to relocate entire villages. (Jonathan Kaiman, 2014)
An article in the Guardian, ‘RE mining in China: the bleak social and environment costs’,
says that huge multinational companies in China are highly profit driven and take advantage
of the more relaxed regulations surrounding the mining and refining processing to the
detriment of local communities. The workforce at a plant can also be treated less fairly as
local labourers often have no other choice of employment and the government has weak
labour laws and trade unions do not exist. The extensive deposits, combined with lax health
and safety laws for the workforce and a disregard for the environment means that
economically China’s production costs are so low that it has a virtual monopoly in the
worldwide market. Most other countries have to pay their workforce higher wages and
cover the high cost of recycling waste products environmentally and they are therefore at
an economic disadvantage when compared to China and this is an important factor when
considering the future of REEs.
From the above it is clear that the setting up of a mine and the associated industrial
complexes needed to produce Rare Earth Metals is complex and it is generally accepted that
it can take up to ten years from the discovery of the metals in the ore to the production of
refined pure metals. This time lag is yet another important factor when considering the
future of REEs.
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Current Issues
In 1992 the Chinese Emperor Deng Xiaoping stated that ‘the Middle East has oil but China
has Rare Earth Elements’ (Lesley Stahl 2014) as he predicted the high economic value of the
metals. Many countries in the world require the metals for a range of uses that improve the
lives of their citizens. Without these elements many countries would simply grind to a halt
so REEs have been steadily growing in importance because of their value in the many
cutting-edge technologies used in our industries and within our daily lives. Today, for
economic reasons, new REE deposits are being located around the world as many
companies and countries try to obtain their own supply of these precious elements. In many
ways the race for REE deposits is the equivalent of a 21st century gold rush (Kira Kay 2010).
For most of the last century, as previously mentioned, scientists knew very little about REEs
and there were hardly any products on the market that contained these elements. However,
during the technological boom of the last forty years or so countless everyday items have
been created that use REEs. Today, the worldwide demand for the elements is out-weighing
the supply which is leading to high economic prices. The price for the metals has
dramatically increased over the past 50 year as only a handful of countries have the
deposits, refineries and machinery to extract and process the elements. At the beginning of
the 21st century the main concern with the REE supply was that there are not enough REEs
available to countries other than China. (Renee Cho 2012) As mentioned, China is the largest
producer of REEs in the world, mining, by various estimates at least 90% of total world
production. (Joseph A Giacalone 2012)
Much of the supply of REEs is Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs) which are in greater
demand. Consequently, many countries around the world, including the United States and
Japan, both directly and indirectly rely on imports from China for the production of various
technologies. For example, Japan relies on imports from China to produce the rechargeable
batteries used to power hybrid motor vehicles and many of the other products that it
exports around the world. Consequently any change to the global supply will adversely
affect the economy of countries worldwide. At the moment China is gradually reducing its
export of REEs to the world, which is causing an increase in the price for these elements.
There are several assumptions and theories that seek to explain why China would restrict
exports to other countries. The most obvious reason, agreed by many experts, is that the
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export restrictions may not be a ‘malicious attempt’ by the Chinese government to ‘starve
the world of REEs’ (Jenkins 2010) but it may be explained by its own growing domestic
demand for these metals. As the use of technology in their own country advances the
export supply of these finite resources has had to be reduced.
Governments across the world, including the USA, are now trying to reduce China’s current
monopoly on the REE market by searching for new deposits and re-opening mines to reduce
their dependence. However the sole USA REE refinery company announced bankruptcy in
2012 as they could not produce usable metals at a profit. Compared to China the USA
spends additional millions on safety procedures, employee salaries and ways to reduce
environmental impacts. On the other hand, China’s REE industry has not been hampered by
environmental issues or worker’s rights, safety or wages. China has poured billions into the
industry but, until recently, has ignored the social and environmental impact of mining.
China’s policies have also allowed them to capitalise on their rare earth element industry by
developing the technology, techniques and labour force required to efficiently and
effectively mine, extract, separate and refine rare earth minerals at more operationally
feasible costs than other countries. During this time it became more economically viable for
countries, such as the United States, to cease production of rare earth minerals and import
these minerals from China.
Just how dependent the entire world is on Chinese rare earths became very clear at the end
of 2010 when China threatened to
restrict supplies to Japan due to Japanese
and Chinese fishing ships ramming each
other in disputed waters. China therefore
stopped the supply and the sudden spike
in rare-earth prices was dramatic – a
3,000% rise in the cost of some elements.
(Justin Rowlatt BBC World Service 2014)
Prices have since fallen back, but as you would
expect the shock was enough to prompt
governments around the world to once again
encourage companies to begin to explore, extract and refine in their own countries REEs.
Currently there is an explosion of worldwide exploration with numerous companies, most of
Figure 3.0: Rare Earth Element prices
compared with gold in January 2008
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them relatively small, exploring on every continent. Interestingly, exploration and chemical
analysis has shown that the seabed might also be a rich, future source of REE especially of
Neodymium and Dysprosium.
However as more REEs deposits, that are potentially economic to mine, are found outside
China, they cannot simply be ‘turned on’ as previously mentioned as it takes ten years, or
longer, to go through all the technical, financial, environmental and regulatory stages
needed to establish a new mine. To reduce the time taken to set up new mining activities
investors and policy makers are currently investigating the feasibility of reopening mines
which were closed because they were unable to compete with China’s low prices. Two
examples of reopening mines are the Mountain Pass mine in California, USA and the
Steenkampskraal mine in South Africa. Reopening mines is a good way to produce new
sources of REEs although these are not thought to be sufficient to cover the increase in
demand worldwide.
To limit China’s monopoly various governments and industrial users worldwide have also
begun to develop other strategies to safeguard the supply of REEs. These governments are
working individually and together to develop an early warning system to better predict
future supply problems. Some industrial users of REEs have also established joint venture
partnerships with mining companies, thereby ‘ensuring a market for the ores at a known
price and securing supply for the processors and manufacturers’. (Nic Bilham 2015)
Yet another area of worldwide concern is that the uses of individual REEs is unpredictable as
the uses are rapidly changing over time and REEs that were needed decades ago are not the
same ones needed now. In the 1970s and 1980s, for example, Samrium was used in
permanent magnets but there was limited availability of this element. Now it is not used at
all. Before 1985 there were no industrial uses for Dysprosium and Neodymium but thirty
years later they are in very high demand for magnets. In fact, Neodymium is said to be the
‘number one rare earth’ for the foreseeable future, and its mineralogical and mineral
processing is currently the key areas for research. (British Geological Survey Challenge
Workshop 25 Oct 2013)
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Figure 3.1: Identifying LREE and HREE
In the next few years changes are forecast in the need for Europium, Terbium and Yttrium,
the three most currently used REEs, because their use in florescent lamps is being reduced
as more Light Emitting Diode (LEDs) are being used and these do not need REEs at all.
Another significant problem with REEs is that
those elements that are used most often are
the lowest in abundance. The general rule
about the natural abundance of REEs is that the
element becomes scarcer as the atomic number
increases. At the moment HREESs are less
abundant than LREEs but higher in demand.
Generally, as the steady supply of REEs decreases, scientists have turned their research from
improving mining techniques to improve recycling techniques in the hope that this will help
fill the gap in demand. However, recycling REEs is not as easy as recycling glass or plastic as
there are challenges at nearly every level. Just as separating REEs from rock ore is difficult so
is recovering them from used goods. REEs are also ‘deeply embedded in other products’ and
‘physical extraction often yields a small return on substantial effort’ (Dent 2012). Once ore
for REEs is extracted the individual REEs must be separated from each other and from the
host ore in a series of procedures that are costly and technically challenging.
What the future holds
Since 2010 several countries have gradually become less dependent on supplies of REE from
China. The USA and Australia are developing their own independent industries and are
learning how to recycle the waste products safely. (Jonathan Kaiman, 2014)
The current situation is that the recycling processes for used REEs are complex and, even if
re-use is economically possible, extensive physical and chemical treatment will be
necessary. Only a few industrial recycling sites are currently operating and up to now there
has been no large-scale recycling of mobile phones, magnets, batteries, lighting and
catalysts which are the main common uses of REEs on the market. For example, mobile
phones contain Neodymium and Dysprosium but it is not economical to recycle these. It is
more likely that electric motors and wind turbines will be recycled first because they are
18
large and have a higher amount of REEs in them although it may be 10 – 20 years before
they enter the recycling economy.
Since their discovery, research on REEs and permanent magnets has been continuous but
today scientists are exploring how to deploy REEs in better ways and how to use substitute
or alternative materials for the same applications with some success. Research into reducing
and eliminating the REE content in applications has produced promising results. Some
governments and manufacturers are seeking to minimise or remove the need for REEs
altogether. One method to reduce the need for Dysprosium, which is needed in magnets to
enhance tolerance to heat, has been to reduce the operating temperature of vehicles or
power generators. In a drive to eliminate the need for REEs altogether in their cars,
Mitsubishi created an electric motor that did not use REEs but at a cost it does not operate
quite as well as motors that use REEs.
Yet another issue to overcome is the fact that the world’s reliance on China’s REEs and that
there are very few sufficient scientists and chemical engineers to set up the new industries
to compete with China. Although it has been difficult for some countries to find and train
people who specialise in this field, countries like Japan are leading the way by encouraging
academics to study this particular area of science, geology and engineering.
Conclusion
In the short term it appears that a potential technological crisis with the shortage of REEs
will be adverted through conservation of these costly materials, by changing production
techniques so as to use lesser quantities of HREEs and more LREESs elements and by
ensuring there are sufficient supplies through new mining and recycling outside China.
However nothing can be taken for granted as the global situation keeps changing, for
example, it is predicted that over the next decade there will be a shortage of some
elements, notably neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium and yttrium. (Nic Bilham
2015) As research to find substitute materials and acceptable alternative technologies that
do not rely heavily or at all on rare earth materials continues our reliance on REEs should
diminish, however, ‘it is unlikely that practical material alternatives will be available in the
short-term, if ever’. (Bradsher 2011)
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Hopefully, in the longer term advances in science and technology will improve our ability to
find and extract REEs, as has been the case for other metals in the past, and the likelihood of
supply disruptions will be reduced.
Clearly, there are so many variables that influence the future supply-demand balance for
REEs it makes it difficult to predict their role and influence on technological advances during
the 21st Century but I believe that there is every reason to be optimistic.
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Front Cover Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
Figure 1.0: https://tnahistoryoftechnology.wikispaces.com/Rare+Earth+Metals
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23
Figure 2.3:
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Figure 3.0: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26687605
Figure 3.1: http://www.periodni.com/rare_earth_elements.html