What Are Rare Earth Metals?

The “broadness” of the term varies. Indisputably they include the 15 elements of the lanthanide series, and commercially/generally/traditionally also the two elements yttrium and scandium, which are transition metals and are called rare earth metals because they are found with them. These 17 elements are termed rare earth metals because of how they were discovered and the early difficulty of separating them, though they are quite common in the earth’s crust, with the most common rare earth metals more common than lead or silver.

Sometimes the 15 elements of the Actinide Series will be included, but are generally not for commercial purposes since they are radioactive. They include Uranium and Plutonium.

What Are Their Uses?

Some of the most important uses are magnets in electric motors, metal for batteries in hybrid cars, generators for wind turbines, lasers.

“The range of applications in which they are used is extraordinarily wide, from the everyday (automotive catalysts and petroleum cracking catalysts, flints for lighters, pigments for glass and ceramics and compounds for polishing glass) to the highly specialized (miniature nuclear batteries, lasers repeaters, superconductors and miniature magnets).

REM are now especially important, and used extensively, in the defense industry. Some of their specific defense applications include: anti-missile defense, aircraft parts, communications systems, electronic countermeasures, jet engines, rockets, underwater mine detection, missile guidance systems and space-based satellite power.

USGS figures for 2006 indicate that the three main uses of REM in the U.S. were: automotive catalytic converters (25%), petroleum refining catalysts (22%) and metallurgical additives and alloys (20%).”

What is the Status of Production and Trade (2007)

From 2003-2006, China accounted for some 94% of the US’s REM-related imports. For its part, China produces 97% of the World’s REMs, with domestic consumption eating up over half of its production

From having been a major producer (and consumer) of REM (from the Mountain Pass mine in the Mojave Desert, Calif. the richest deposit in the world) until the mid-80s, the U.S. now no longer mines any REM. Basically China was just too cheap. Separation

activities have restarted at Mountain Pass, but actual mining operations have not restarted.

Future locations for mining include Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka, with India and Malaysia already producing.

3 Good Articles (Especially the last one)

RPT-FACTBOX-Race for rare earth metals shifts away from ChinaTue Sep 8, 2009 5:08pm EDT

Sept 8 (Reuters) - The race to find rare earth metals, used in hybrid cars, laser equipment and a diverse range of other technologies, is shifting to Canada, Brazil and South Africa as Canadian explorers look for sources that would loosen China's lock on supplies.

Concerns are mounting that Beijing could further restrict rare earth exports and even impose an outright ban on shipments of some key metals.

Here are few interesting facts about rare earth metals:

* China produces about 97 percent of world's rare earth metals.

* The country wants to use its resources mainly for its domestic consumption while getting global companies to set up high-tech operations in its regions such as Inner Mongolia.

* In late 1990s, Chinese companies expanded their mining operations, leading to the country's control of most of the world's rare earth production.

* China regulates its exports with quotas and duties. Since 2004, exports from China have shrunk by about 10 percent each year. Analysts say the export quotas for this year could range between 32,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes.

* Demand for rare earth metals is likely to increase between 10 percent and 20 percent each year, on back of growing demand for metals such as neodymium, used to make hybrid electric vehicles and generators for wind turbines. (Reporting by Ashutosh Joshi in Bangalore)

Shortage of Rare Metals for Hybrids Is Overblown

Fri Sep 4, 2009 11:57am EDT http://www.reuters.com/article/mnGreenAutos/idUS162779749320090904By Bradley Berman

China is tightening grip on its rare earth metals, which may derail production of hybrid and electric cars, according to The New York Times and Bloomberg. Hybrid cars use rare metals, especially neodymium for magnets in electric motors, and lanthanum in nickel metal hydride batteries.

Prabhakar Patil, CEO of battery-maker Compact Power and former chief engineer of Ford's hybrid program, sees the rare earth supply concern as "not very high," when compared to other factors that could limit production of hybrids and electric cars. Patil believes that if supplies or prices for rare earth metals become an issue, car companies will work around a shortage by using induction motors and power electronics. He admits that there will be a penalty in terms of size, cost, and efficiency of motors. "But it is not a show stopper," Patil told HybridCars.com.

Officials from Toyota, by far the biggest manufacturer of hybrid cars, believe rare earth materials are a concern, but not a major or immediate one. "This is something that we have to address as more manufacturing of electric vehicles and hybrids come on line," said Jana Hartline Toyota's environmental communication manager, in an interview with HybridCars.com. "Does that mean next week? No. It becomes a legitimate thing to consider when you talk about production in the order of millions over several years."

Recent media reports also described the process of mining the rare earth metals as damaging to the environment. Hartline said, "Mining in any way, shape or form is never an environmentally friendly process. That's the nature of the beast." She said that Toyota is continually looking for sourcing and manufacturing processes that are less damaging to the environment.

Planning Required

Jack Lifton, an independent Michigan-based strategic metals expert, believes there could be "a gap" in hybrid and electric car production in the future-but only if new North American production of rare earth metals does not come on board as expected, and auto engineers fail to plan for a shift to magnets and motors that require fewer or no rare earth metals.

A mineral facility in Mountain Pass, Calif.-owned by Molycorp Mineral-is the richest rare earth deposit in the world, said Lifton. Molycorp and other North American mining companies stopped producing decades ago, when China started supplying the metals at a cheaper price. If Molycorp, and other Canada-based mining concerns, go back into production as planned, within three to four years, hybrid and electric car production will "not only be on track, it could be done in the United States," said Lifton. Currently, nearly all hybrid components, such as batteries and motors, are manufactured in Asia.

There is a window of approximately five years, according to Lifton, before China's planned use of neodymium for a range of products, especially wind turbines, could cut off automakers. At that point, "the electrification of motor cars will probably go on hold, but not for Toyota," Lifton told HybridCars.com. "Toyota has been stockpiling. They've been buying. They've invested in a mine. Toyota will probably be okay." He believes that Honda and Ford are also making necessary preparations, but that all other carmakers will have a difficult time with supplies needed for powerful motors required for hybrid and electric cars. "If you didn't develop raw materials sourcing already, you're done," said Lifton.

Reprinted with permission from HybridCars.com

Rare Earth Metals Not So Rare but Valuable by: Hard Assets Investor November 04, 2008

The rare earth metals are, in fact, not that rare.

The most commonly occurring rare earth metals - cerium, lanthanum, neodymium and yttrium - are actually more common in the Earth's crust than lead. And even silver.

While cerium, the most abundant rare earth metal, is more prevalent (60 parts per million (ppm)) than copper, even lutetium (0.5 ppm) and thulium (0.5 ppm), the least abundant, are to be found in the Earth's crust in greater quantities than antimony, bismuth, cadmium and thallium. (The outlier is promethium, which, it appears, is not to be found in the Earth's crust, and which is only used in compound form, of which, to date, some 30 have been prepared.)

Abundance of Elements In The Earth's Crust

Note: Abundance (atom fraction) of the chemical elements in Earth's upper continental crust as a function of atomic number.

Many of the elements are classified into (partially overlapping) categories: (1) rock-forming elements (major elements in green field and minor elements in light green field); (2) rare earth elements (lanthanides, La-Lu, and Y; labeled in blue); (3) major industrial metals (global production > ~3x107 kg/year; labeled in bold); (4) precious metals (italic); and (5) the nine rarest "metals" - the six platinum group elements plus Au, Re, and Te (a metalloid).

Source: USGS

 So, why are they called the "rare earth" metals? Probably from the uncommon oxide-type minerals, or earths, from which they were originally extracted. The corollary to their abundance is, however, the fact that, to date, their "discovered minable concentrations are less common than for most other ores."

What Are The Rare Earth Metals?

The rare earth metals (aka, REM, rare earth elements [REE] or, sometimes, just rare earths) are a group of 15 chemically similar elements (grouped separately in the periodic table) known as lanthanides. Commercially, the rare earth grouping usually also includes scandium and yttrium, both of which are actually elements above lanthanum in the periodic table.

In more physical terms, these metals range in color from shiny silver to iron gray. As the USGS describes them, they "are typically soft, malleable, ductile and usually reactive, especially at elevated temperatures or when finely divided." At the lower end, cerium has a melting point of 798° C and, at the upper, lutetium has a melting point of 1,663° C.

It will come as no surprise that the unique properties (catalytic, chemical, electrical, metallurgical, nuclear, magnetic and optical) of the REM, and, in particular, both their specificity and versatility, have led to their being used for a wide variety of purposes.

From relative obscurity, they are now important economically, environmentally and technologically.

 What Are They Used for?

The range of applications in which they are used is extraordinarily wide, from the everyday (automotive catalysts and petroleum cracking catalysts, flints for lighters, pigments for glass and ceramics and compounds for polishing glass) to the highly specialized (miniature nuclear batteries, lasers repeaters, superconductors and miniature magnets).

 The Rare Earths And Some Of Their End Uses

Name Symbol Some End Uses

Cerium Ce Catalysts, Ceramics, Glasses, Misch Metal*, Phosphors and Polishing Powders

Dysprosium‡ Dy Ceramics, Phosphors and Nuclear Applications

Erbium‡ Er Ceramics, Glass Dyes, Optical Fibers, Lasers and Nuclear Applications

Europium‡ Eu Phosphors

Gadolinium‡ Gd Ceramics, Glasses, Optical and Magnetic Detection and Medical Image Visualization

Holmium‡ Ho Ceramics, Lasers and Nuclear Applications

Lanthanum La Automotive Catalysts, Ceramics, Glasses, Phosphors and Pigments

Lutetium‡ Lu Single Crystal Scintillators

Neodymium Nd Catalysts, IR Filters, Lasers, Permanent Magnets and Pigments

Praseodymium Pr Ceramics, Glasses and Pigments

Promethium Pm Phosphors and Miniature Nuclear Batteries and Measuring Devices

Samarium Sm Microwave Filters, Nuclear Applications and Permanent Magnets

Scandium Sc Aerospace, Baseball Bats, Nuclear Applications, Lighting and Semiconductors

Terbium‡ Tb Phosphors

Thulium‡ Tm Electron Beam Tubes and Medical Image Visualization

Ytterbium‡ Yb Chemical Industry and Metallurgy

Yttrium‡ Y Capacitors, Phosphors (CRT and Lamp), Radars and Superconductors

Groups: yttrium and lanthanide (Scandium falls into neither category)

‡ Heavy REM

* Misch Metal is an alloy of rare earth metals used not only for lighter flints, but also, probably more importantly, in purifying steel by removing oxygen and sulfur.

Separately, or as compounds, various rare earth metals are used also in the production of superalloys.

REM are now especially important, and used extensively, in the defense industry. Some of their specific defense applications include: anti-missile defense, aircraft parts, communications systems, electronic countermeasures, jet engines, rockets, underwater mine detection, missile guidance systems and space-based satellite power.

USGS figures for 2006 indicate that the three main uses of REM in the U.S. were: automotive catalytic converters (25%), petroleum refining catalysts (22%) and metallurgical additives and alloys (20%).

Source: USGS

In many of these applications, the REM are used in the form of low-cost compounds. As oxides, they are used extensively in the ceramics and glass industries and, in addition, for various metallurgical uses. Indeed, it has been estimated that only 25% of mined REM-bearing materials are actually processed to extract individual metals.

The REM most commonly used as separated metals are: cerium, europium, gadolinium, neodymium, samarium and terbium.

Rare Earth Metals Supply

From having been a major producer (and consumer) of REM (from the Mountain Pass mine in the Mojave Desert, Calif.) until the mid-80s, the U.S. now no longer mines any REM. The world's major producer is China (particularly from its Bayan Obo mining operation in Inner Mongolia), with considerably lesser amounts coming from Brazil, India and Russia. Since 2000, domestic REM consumption in China (which now accounts for over half of the country's overall REM products) has exceeded that of the U.S.

Global Rare Earth Metal Oxide Production - 1950-2006 (‘000s Tonnes)

Source: Russian Journal of Non-Ferrous Metals (from USGS)

While REM deposits in China and the U.S. are primarily to be found in the mineral bastnäsite (80-90% of all raw materials produced), elsewhere - and in particular in Australia, Brazil, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand - they are usually to be found in the mineral monazite. (There are also monazite resources both in China and the U.S.) Mining monazite can, however, be a little tricky, as the ore tends to contain the radioactive elements thorium (see Cobalt: More Than Just Blue) and radium.

In addition, there are also REM-containing ion-absorption ores in the south of China. Importantly, these last contain around 80% of the world's known resources of the less-widespread heavy, yttrium group, metals.

World Mine Production (Tonnes)

Country 2006 2007

China 119,000 120,000

India 2,700 2,700

Brazil 730 730

Malaysia 200 200

Thailand - -

Australia - -

U.S. - -

Other Countries NA NA

Total (rounded) 123,000 124,000

Source: USGS

Although it mines no REM of its own, in 2007, the U.S. remained a major importer, exporter and consumer. From 2003-2006, China accounted for some 94% of its REM-related imports.

While not yet actually recommencing mining operations (for environmental, regulatory and market reasons), toward the end of 2007, Molycorp Inc. (wholly-owned by Chevron) resumed operating its rare earth separation plant at Mountain Pass. The company continues to sell bastnäsite concentrates and REM intermediaries, together with refined products, from its existing mine stocks. Permits to recommence mining are still pending.

Rare Earth Metals Demand

Domestic demand in the U.S., as well as the demand for REM globally, remained strong in 2007, and have continued so in 2008. This has been true both for mixed rare earth compounds and the metals and their alloys. According to the USGS: "The trend is for a continued increase in the use of rare earths in many applications, especially automotive catalytic converters, permanent magnets, and rechargeable batteries."

Forecast Growth Of Rare Earth Metals Usage

Element ApplicationConsumption

(Tonnes p.a. of REO)

Growth Rate

(% p.a) 

  2006 2012  

Ce, La, Nd, Pr Battery Alloy 17,000 43,000 17

Dy, Nd, Pr, Sm, Tb Magnets 20,500 42,000 13

Eu, Tb, Y Phosphors 8,500 14,000 9 

Ceramics 5,500 9,000 9 

Others 8,000 13,000 8

Ce, Nd, La Catalysts 21,500 32,000 7

Ce, La, Pr Polishing Powder 14,000 21,000 7

Ce, Er, Gd, La, Nd, Yb Glass Additives 13,000 14,000 1 

Total 108,000 188,000 10

REO = rare earth oxide

Source: Roskill HK Rare Earth Conference, November 2007

The prices of most REM rose in 2007, and with the exception of neodymium and praseodymium (both metal and oxides) and terbium (oxide), the prices of most REM (metals and oxides) have either remained the same, or continued to rise in 2008.

 Price - US$/Kg

Name Oxide Metal 

End-2007 End-Oct 2008 End-2007 End-Oct 2008

Cerium 3.60 3.80 7.10 10.50

Dysprosium 94.00 118.00 125.00 153.00

Erbium 35.00 35.00 N/A N/A

Europium 368.00 525.00 560.00 700.00

Gadolinium N/A N/A 25.00 28.00

Lanthanum 4.60 8.00 6.00 13.00

Lutetium 550.00 550.00 N/A N/A

Neodymium 30.00 20.00 40.00 29.00

Praseodymium 28.00 20.00 37.00 29.00

Samarium 4.40 4.40 14.00 26.00

Terbium 633.00 621.00 750.00 793.00

Ytterbium 55.00 55.00 N/A N/A

Yttrium 12.00 12.00 29.00 42.00

Misch Metal (48% Ce) 6.00 8.00

Misch Metal (25% La) 12.00 14.00

Source: Tianjiao International

With such strong domestic demand for REM in China, there are now controls on production and exports (tariffs and quotas). And in some places, because of environmental concerns, among other things, there are both mining restrictions and mining quotas.

According to Roskill's 2007 report on the economics of rare earths and yttrium, this has "brought fundamental change to the global industry, taking it from oversupply to demand shortages."

Indeed, in its report, Roskill envisaged that, with demand growth for rare earths forecast at 8-11% per annum, and should China's strict control persist, there will be a significant need for "new non-Chinese capacity in the next 3 to 4 years."

2007 - Supply/Demand Forecast

Source: Roskill

Opportunities In Rare Earths

As with the minor metals, there are no exchanges on which REM are traded. Both the physical metals and their different oxides can, however, be bought from various specialist rare earth companies.

It seems reasonable to assume that there will always be demand for rare earths metals. While there are substitutes, these are usually not as effective. Since no REM are currently mined in the U.S., and Molycorp is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron, no direct investment in any significant U.S. mining operations for these metals is possible. Looking overseas, there are, however, some opportunities for exposure.

India, unfortunately, is out, as all three rare earth production companies are government-owned.

A recent news snippet about the Japanese chemical group Showa Denko (Bloomberg Ticker - SHWDF:US) was of particular interest on two counts. Not only did it state that the company had set up a joint venture to extract dysprosium in Vietnam, but also that it was doing so because it wanted to secure a "stable supply" of rare earth magnetic materials as, currently, it relies on China - where, indeed, it currently has two subsidiaries (Baotou and Ganzhou).

China

If, however, the world's largest REM producer is of interest, then, among the Chinese companies mining REM in Bayan Obo, is the quoted Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co Ltd (Baogang) (Bloomberg Ticker - 600111:CH).

Quoted companies mining REM elsewhere in China include: China Rare Earth Holdings Ltd (Bloomberg Ticker - CREQF:US), Aluminum Corporation of China (aka Chinalco) (Bloomberg Ticker - ACH:US), Neo Material Technologies (Bloomberg Ticker - NEM:CN).

Recently, however, the mines in Sichuan were shut down, and there are strict quotas in places in Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi, where there has been severe environmental damage.

Australia

In Australia, there are currently a number of rare earth mining projects at various stages of development.

According to an ASX announcement at the beginning of July this year, the "Demonstration Pilot Plant" at Alkane Resources' (Bloomberg Ticker - ALK:AU) Dubbo Zirconia project was set to go 24/7 in late July, and it stated that "(l)aboratory scale testing for recovery of the rare earth elements is scheduled to commence in July."

Arafura Resources (Bloomberg Ticker - AFAFF:US) expects the rare earths processing plant at its Nolans Project in the country's Northern Territory to be in production in 2011.

Based on November 2005 figures, the company compared its Nolans resource with some others around the world.

Source: Arafura Resources Limited

At its Mount Weld project in Western Australia, Lynas Corporation (Bloomberg Ticker - LYSCF:US) completed its first mining "campaign" in May. Based on figures updated

in March this year, the company believes its resources at the project now amount to some 12.24 million tonnes at 9.7% rare earth oxide, which will produce some 1,124,000 tonnes of REO.

Canada

In addition to Neo Material Technologies out of Toronto, with its operation in China, there are three other Canadian companies involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in REM in Canada itself.

Avalon Ventures Ltd (Bloomberg Ticker - AVL:CN) has its Thor Lake Project near Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories with, according to the company, "[e]xceptional enrichment in Neodymium & Heavy REE."

VMS Ventures (Bloomberg Ticker - VMS:CN), out of Vancouver, has its Eden Lake Carbonatite Complex in Manitoba, where REM were discovered in 2003.

Great Western Minerals Group (Bloomberg Ticker - GWG:CN), out of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, has its Hoidas Lake Rare Earth Project which, in the words of the company, "...is North America's most advanced Rare Earth Element ( REE ) property in development..." and "...has the potential to supply at least 10% of North America's consumption of REE for many years . "

Finally, Canada's Rare Element Resources (Bloomberg Ticker - RES:CN), has not only gold on its Bear Lodge, Wyo., property, but also, in its words, "significant high-grade rare-earth elements."

For those interested in looking "downstream," there are a number of REM producers internationally, especially in Japan. In the U.S., however, apart from Chevron's Molycorp, both France's chemical company Rhodia (Bloomberg Ticker - RHA:FP), and WR Grace's (Bloomberg Ticker - GRA:US) Grace Davison division are actively involved in processing rare earths.

Afterwords

First, it has been estimated that current global consumption of REM now accounts for around 70-75% of their total production. This leads one to believe that considerable quantities of mined REO remain, as yet to be processed.

Second, the mineral ore resources currently mined to produce REM contain different groups of metals, not just particular, individual, metals in isolation. So, instead of some of these metals being by-products of other metals, as, say, rhenium is of moly, and moly is of copper, they are essentially "co-products" - mine for one and the others come free.

The corollary to this, however, is that the economics of mining on such a "volume" basis could lead to it just not being viable to mine such ore resources for one or two REM

alone, especially if the other metals contained in the REO do not "pay their way." In future, therefore, the composition of a mine's REO resources - as opposed just to the volume of ore it can produce - may well become critical to that mine's economic viability.

Third, even though rare earth metals are classified as critical minerals in the U.S. National Academies' "criticality matrix," the U.S. National Defense Stockpile at present contains none.

http://www.chemicalelements.com/groups/rareearth.html

The thirty rare earth elements are composed of the lanthanide and actinide series. One element of the lanthanide series and most of the elements in the actinide series are called trans-uranium, which means synthetic or man-made. All of the rare earth metals are found in group 3 of the periodic table, and the 6th and 7th periods. The Rare Earth Elements are made up of two series of elements, the Lanthanide and Actinide Series.

The Rare Earth Elements are:

Lanthanide Series   Actinide Series Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium

Lutetium

Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium

Lawrencium