2019 – Posted in: Daily News

RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

For: Mains

Topic covers: Rare elements – details, uses, China-US-Japan on rare earth

News Flash

Rising tensions between the United States and China have sparked concerns that Beijing could use its dominant position as a supplier of rare earths for leverage in the trade war between the two global economic powers.

Rare Earth Elements

Rare earths are used in rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid cars, advanced ceramics, computers, DVD players, wind turbines, catalysts in cars and oil refineries, monitors, televisions, lighting, lasers, fiber optics, superconductors and glass polishing.

Several rare earth elements, such as neodymium and dysprosium, are critical to the motors used in electric vehicles.

Some rare earth minerals are essential in military equipment such as jet engines, missile guidance systems, antimissile defense systems, satellites, as well as in lasers. Lanthanum, for example, is needed to manufacture night vision devices.

What are rare earths and where do they occur?

Rare earth metals are a group of 17 elements – lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium – that appear in low concentrations in the ground.

Although they are more abundant than their name implies, they are difficult and costly to mine and process cleanly. China hosts most of the world’s processing capacity and supplied 80% of the rare earths imported by the United States from 2014 to 2017.

Importers made limited efforts to reduce rare earth consumption and dependence on China after a diplomatic dispute between China and Japan in 2010. Japan accused China of halting rare earth supplies for political reasons, sparking recognition worldwide of the risks of dependence on one supplier. China denied it had halted supplies.

17 Rare Earth elements

There are 17 elements that are considered to be rare earth elements—15 elements in the lanthanide series and two additional elements that share similar chemical properties.

Scandium or Sc (21), Yttrium or Y (39), Lanthanum or La (57), Cerium or Ce (58), Praseodymium or Pr (59), Neodymium or Nd (60), Promethium or Pm (61), Samarium or Sm (62), Europium or Eu (63), Gadolinium or Gd (64), Terbium or Tb (65), Dysprosium or Dy (66), Holmium or Ho (67), Erbium or Er (68), Thulium or Tm (69), Ytterbium or Yb (70), Lutetium or Lu (71)

Alternative suppliers

Few alternative suppliers were able to compete with China, which is home to 37% of global rare earths reserves.
California’s Mountain Pass mine is the only operating U.S. rare earths facility. But MP Materials, owner of Mountain Pass, ships the roughly 50,000 tonnes of rare earth concentrate it extracts each year from California to China for processing. China has imposed a tariff of 25% on those imports during the trade war.
Australia’s Lynas Corporation Ltd this week said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Texas-based Blue Line Corp to build a rare earth processing facility in the United States.
Rare earths are also mined in India, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Estonia, Malaysia and Brazil.

How are rare earths affected by US tariffs?

So far, the US government has exempted rare earths from tariffs on Chinese goods.

How have rare earths prices reacted to the rising tensions?

Having held largely steady for the past several months, the export prices of an array of rare earth elements have rallied strongly since Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to a rare earth processing firm in southern China on May 20 brought the sector under the spotlight.

The price of neodymium metal – used in magnets and speakers – increased 26.5% since May 20 from $50 per kilogram to $63.25/kg. Dysprosium metal (used in lasers), erbium oxide and gadolinium oxide (used in medical imaging and fuel cells) are up around 10%.

Get more details on Rare Earth Click here Rare Earth Element Resources

Source: Indian Express

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