Guillaume and the moose

Have you heard about Rare earth elements ? … For sure, you use them everyday !

The main issues are :

• Industrial aspects: applications of the rare earth elements have increased such as they have become rare
• Strategic aspects: 95% of all rare earth elements are produced in China
• Environmental aspects: Rare earth processing is a polluting business that uses toxic chemicals

 

A/ What are we talking about ?

Rare Earth Elements, or Rare Earth Metals, are a group of materials with unique properties that make them critical to a number of emerging technologies. The thirty rare earth elements are composed of the lanthanide and actinide series. For more chemestry aspects, see here : http://www.ggg.gl/Rare-Earth-Elements/Rare-Earth-Elements.htm

 

B/ Why is it a hot topic today ?

High-technology and environmental applications of the rare earth elements (REE) have grown dramatically in diversity and importance over the past four decades.

 

C/ Some Applications of the Rare Earth Elements :

• Hybrid vehicles,
• rechargeable batteries,
• mobile phones,
• plasma televisions,
• disk drives and
• catalytic converters

All these stuff are all dependent on the unique properties provided by rare earth elements, so their availability is becoming a vital aspect of the development of these technologies.

 

D/ Geostrategic issue

Today, 95% of all rare earth elements are produced by mines in China.

The rare earth metals market amounts to about US$2 billion per year.

 

D/ Are Rare Earth Minerals Too Costly for Environment?

Rare earth processing in China is a dangerous, polluting business. It uses toxic chemicals, acids, sulfates, ammonia. The workers have little protection.

But, we need rare earth ro reach  Copenhagen objectives. For example, you may buy an hybrid car and think you're saving the planet. But each motor contains a kilo of neodymium and each battery more than 10 kilos of lanthanum, rare earth elements from China.

“At Copenhagen, politicians talk of cutting carbon emissions, but they can't meet any targets without rare earth” an expert says.

 

What do you think about this underestimated issue ?