Sunday, July 21, 2019

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Friday, July 19, 2019



......but rare with all their applications everywhere

Yttrium              Lasers, TV and computer displays

Lanthanum     Oil refineries, hybrid-car batteries, camera lenses

Cerium               Catalytic converters, oil refining, glass-lense production

Praseodymium Aircraft engines, carbon arc lights

Neodymium   Computer hard drives, cell phones, high-power magnets

Promethium Portable x-ray machines, nuclear batteries

Samarium      High-power magnets, ethanol, PCB cleansers

Europium      TV and computer displays, lasers, optical electronics

Gadolinium   Cancer therapy, MRI contrast agent

Terbium         Solid-state electronics, sonar systems

Dysprosium Lasers, nuclear-reactor control rods, high-power magnets

Holmium       High-power magnets, lasers

Erbium             Fiber optics, nuclear-reactor control rods

Thulium           X-ray machines, super conductors

Ytterbium     Portable x-ray machines, lasers

Lutetium     Chemical processing, LED light bulbs

During June 2019 prices of dysprosium metal reached their highest level since June 2015 at $292 per kg and the price of neodymium metal rose to its highest level since July 2018 at $63 a kg      

 The rare earth elements are defined as a group of chemical elements composed of scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides. The lanthanides are a group of 15 chemically similar elements. Although not a lanthanide, yttrium is included in the rare earths because it often occurs with them in nature, having similar chemical properties. Scandium is also included in the group, although it typically occurs in rare earth ores only in minor amounts because of its smaller atomic and ionic size.

The elements range in crustal abundance from cerium, the 25th most abundant element of the 78 common elements in the Earth's crust, at an estimated 46 parts per million, to europium and erbium, the least abundant rare earth elements, at about 0.5 and 0.4 parts per million respectively. Rare earth elements (REE) are widely distributed in low concentrations (10 to 300 ppm) in shales, granites, alkaline rocks and carbonatites.  
Bastnaesite - (Ce,La,Y)CO3F- ore from Mountain Pass Mine, California. 
Source: International Business Times - Reuters Photo / David Becker

Significant quantities of rare earths are also recovered from the mineral monazite. xenotime and ion-adsorption clays and account for a much smaller part of the total production, but are important sources of yttrium and other heavy-group rare earths.

Monazite (Ce,La,Nd,Th)PO4)



Xenotime (YPO4)

Bastnaesite is found in deposits such as Bayan Obo (China) and Mountain Pass (USA) and contains low concentrations of thorium and uranium. Deposits of Mt. Weld (Australia) as well as the placer deposits in Brazil and India are typical deposits with monazite as the main RE mineral. Monazite yields the highest value of the toxic element thorium with approximately 27 wt-%. Both minerals gain the highest grades in REO. Contrary to bastnasite and monazite, xenotime is typical of deposite such as Lofdal (Namibia) or Browns Range (Australia). It yields average values of thorium (approx. 8.4 wt-%) and the highest values of uranium (approx. 5.8 wt-%).

    Abbreviations
  • RE: Rare earth
  • REE: Rare earth element
  • REM: Rare earth metal
  • REO: Rare earth oxide
  • TREO Total rare earth oxides
  • REY: Rare earth element and yttrium
  • LREE: Light rare earth elements
  • MREE: Middle rare earth elements
  • HREE: Heavy rare earth elements

 References
Alonso, E., Sherman, A. M., Wallington, T. J., Everson, M. P., Field, F. R., Roth, R., & Kirchain, R. E. (2012). Evaluating rare earth element availability: A case with revolutionary demand from clean technologies. Environmental science and technology, 46, 3406-3414. Retrieved from http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es203518d

Friedrichs, Patrick: Development of a Rare Earth Element Resource Database Management System

Hatch, G. P. (2012, October). Dynamics in the global market for rare earths. Elements, 8, Retrieved from http://elements.geoscienceworld.org/content/8/5/341

Humphries, M. Congressional Research Service, (2012). Rare earth elements: The global supply chain (R41347). Retrieved from Congressional Research Service website: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41347.pdf

 Louwerse, D: RARE EARTH ELEMENT DEPOSITS AND OCCURRENCES WITHIN BRAZIL AND INDIA. 

 Moss, R. L., Tzimas, E., Kara, H., Willis, P., & Kooroshy, J. (2011). Critical metals in strategic energy technologies. JRC scientific and technical reports, doi: JRC 65592. Retrieved from http://setis.ec.europa.eu/newsroom-items-folder/jrc-report-on-criticalmetals-in-strategic-energy-technologies/at_download/Document

Onstad, E. (2012, September 19). Analysis: Rare earth prices to erode on fresh supply, China . Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-rareearths-outlook-idUSBRE88I0O020120919

Pires, F., Miano, S: REE in Brazil – condition of formation and types of deposits

U.S. Department of Energy, (2012). Critical materials strategy (DOE/PI-0009). Retrieved from website: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/DOE_CMS2011_FINAL_Full.pdf

U.S. Geologic Survey. Minerals Information. USGS Minerals. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. <http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals

Zhou, Baolu; Li, Zhongxue; Chen, Congcong (25 October 2017). "Global Potential of Rare Earth Resources and Rare Earth Demand from Clean Technologies". Minerals. 7

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