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WHAT ARE REMs
Where are REEs Used?
REEs can be found across a broad range of industries from electric motor vehicles to the movie industry to your regular self-cleaning ovens! Our unique combination of minerals touch all these industries.
Cerium
Uses of cerium
Cerium is a component in solar panels, LEDs, catalytic converters, thermal resistance alloys, carbon arc lighting, self-cleaning ovens, petroleum refining, hardening agents, and dental ceramics.
Lanthanum
Uses of lanthanum
Lanthanum is a key component in batteries for hybrid vehicles, computers, and electronic devices. Lanthanum is utilized in hydrogen fuel storage cells, special optical glasses, electronic vacuums, carbon lighting applications, as doping agents in camera and telescope lenses, and in polishing glass and gemstones. It also has major applications in petroleum cracking, and as an alloy for many different metals.
Neodymium
Uses of neodymium
Neodymium is essential in the production of the world’s strongest super magnets, which are present in hybrid cars, state-of-the-art wind and tidal turbines, industrial motors, air conditioners, elevators, microphones, loudspeakers, computer hard drives and in-ear headphones. When combined with Terbium, or Dysprosium, a Neodymium magnet can withstand the highest temperatures of any magnet, allowing the element to be used in electric cars.
Yttrium
Uses of yttrium
Yttrium has a wide range of uses with one of the most important being in the production of phosphors for energy efficient fluorescent lamps and LEDs. Yttrium is used to provide a high temperature corrosion resistance in cutting and high precision surgical tools. Other uses include solid electrolytes, electrodes on high-performance spark plugs, catalysts, in aluminum and magnesium alloys, deoxidizer of non-ferrous metals, stabilizer of zirconia in jewelry and as a replacement for thorium in gas mantles for propane lanterns.
Praseodymium
Uses of praseodymium
Praseodymium is most widely used as an alloying agent with magnesium for high-strength metal applications in aircraft engines. It is also used in super magnets, catalytic converters, UV protective glasses, carbon arc lights, and CAT scan scintillators. The element is additionally used as a doping agent in fibre optic cables, and in several metal alloys.
Rare Earth Mining Methods
Being a clay deposit extraction from ionic clays is lowest cost option for REE mining as against the minerals from hard rock deposits such as those found in carbonitites, igneous rocks and other hydro-thermal deposits.
GLOBAL REM’s trends and insights
• The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates total global reserves of REEs at approximately 130Mt. At the country specific level, China accounts for 55Mt or 42 percent of total global reserves followed by Brazil (22Mt), Australia (3.2Mt), India (3.1Mt). Additional REE reserves of various quantities are also held in Finland, Russia, Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, Vietnam, and others.
• Global REE production can be separated into two well-defined categories: China and the rest of the world. Following the discovery of significant new reserves, China surpassed the USA as the world’s largest producer of REEs in the mid-1990s, supported by cheap and abundant labour, low energy costs, and weak regulatory oversight.
• Argus Media estimates global rare earth production at approximately 165,000t in 2016. China’s official and unlicensed production accounts for around 150,000t or 91 percent of global REE output, well ahead of the rest of the world (15,000t or 9pc) consisting primarily of producers in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Russia.
• Rare earth element (REE) prices moved into a steady uptick across the suite of elements in 2017 after half a decade of decline. The price of neodymium accelerated in Q3 2017 to reach US$76/kg in September, up 106% year-to-date. This increase was short-lived and prices fell back to Q2 levels in early December. Price volatility was felt across the rare earths suite, with the average increase of the 15 elements up 57% into Q3 2017.
In part, this renewed interest in the suite of REEs came from new energy technologies using permanent magnets, with neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr) fundamental to the formulation of NdFeB (neodymium-iron-boron) permanent magnets used in the powertrain of electric vehicle (EV) motors. The electrification of the automotive industry is being driven by national targets to meet environmental policies and Roskill forecasts that by 2027, close to 70% of new passenger vehicle sales will have some degree of electrification – including micro hybrids to full battery EVs.
Despite growing demand, the accelerated price bump in 2017 was primarily driven by environmental reforms and closures in China causing a tightening supply from producers, followed by a recovery in prices as producers came back online. The general uptick continued after prices settled in December 2017 and into Q1 2018. However, as demand is set to increase, the rare earth industry was reminded of the sensitivity to Chinese supply.