Supply/demand dynamics for rare earth elements

Source：Frost & Sulilivan Release Date：2013-12-26 287

Metalworking

Rare Earth Elements is expected to exceed the supply as very few mining companies are developing REE due to environmental regulations, and because of long lead times, supply constraints are likely to continue in the short term. The Chinese government estimates that at the current pace of mining, China will run out of all heavy REE to be found in China in approximately 15 years and to preserve REE for domestic use they have reduced their REE exports by 72 percent in last 2 years.

Introduction

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) or Rare Earth Metals are a collection of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, constituting 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. The 15 lanthanides are lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. Other than promethium, all other lanthanides occur naturally.

REEs are divided into "light" and "heavy" groups; the light rare earth metals are lanthanum to samarium and the heavy rare earth metals are europium to lutetium.

Exhibit 1: Periodic Table

Applications

Aerospace and Defense

REEs are used in many electronic, optical, and magnetic applications. Rare earth magnets (which are produced from Rare Earth Metals) are incredibly powerful; some can retain their magnetic strength at hightemperatures, making them ideal for commercial and aerospace applications. REEs are also used for lasers and resolution technologies. These technologies are critical to modern aerospace systems.

Health Care

Rare earth magnets produce a powerful magnetic field used in medical imaging devices, such as MRIs, that helpdoctors diagnose illnesses that otherwise would have been much harder to detect. REEs are also used in modern surgical machines for robot-assisted surgeries. Yttrium is used in solid state lasers and in cancer-treating drugs.

Clean Energy

REEs are used in advanced energy technologies, including wind turbines, electric car batteries, and energy-efficient lights, which help to reduce CO2 and other emissions. REEs are essentially used in compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs), LED lighting, and fiber optics. Emerging technology using rare earth magnets and magnetic refrigeration can improve the energy efficiency of refrigerators for home and commercial use.

Electronics

REEs make color displays more vivid in televisions, computer screens, and other devices. They are also important for headphones, microphones, loudspeakers, optical fibers, smartphones, tablets, and computers. Some other applications include europium used in cathode ray tubes (CRT) and liquid crystal displays (LCD), erbium used in fiber optic cables, lanthanum used in fuel cells, and several rare earadidas