Rare Earth Elements (REE): Why are they strategically important?

Rare Earth Elements (REE) are metals having many similar properties. The global demand for rare earth elements has increased significantly in line with their expansion into high-end technology, environment, and economic areas. In this post, we see the importance of Rare Earth Elements and their strategic significance.

What is a Rare Earth Element (REE)?

· Rare earth elements (REE) are a group of seventeen chemical elements that occur together in the periodic table, 15 lanthanides ( Z=57 through 71), Scandium and Yttrium.

· All are metals and have many similar properties which often cause them to be found together in geologic deposits. That is why they are also known as rare earth metals.

· They are also referred to as “rare earth oxides” because many of them are sold as oxide compounds.

· Samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), yttrium (Y), cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm).

Why Scandium and Yttrium also included in the Rare Earth Elements (REE)?

· Because they are found in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and show similar chemical properties.

Are rare earth materials rare as a natural resource?

· They are not rare in quantity, in fact, some of them are very abundant in earth’s crustfor example cerium is more abundant than copper and lead. However, their extraction is very difficult.

Why are they called as rare earth minerals?

· They are so-called ‘rare earth’ because they were originally isolated in the 18th and 19th centuries as oxides from ‘rare minerals’. Further, technologically it was difficult to extract them from their oxides forms until the 20th century. Therefore, the name they got in the 18th century is still stuck with them.

· They occur in many minerals but typically in concentrations too low to be refined in an economical manner.

What is the significance of Rare Earth Elements (REE)?

· They have distinctive electrical, metallurgical, catalytic, nuclear, magnetic and luminescent properties.

· They are strategically very important due to their use of emerging and diverse technologies which cater to the needs of current society.

· Its usage range from daily use (e.g., lighter flints, glass polishing mediums, car alternators) to high-end technology (lasers, magnets, batteries, fibre-optic telecommunication cables).

· Even futuristic technologies need these REMs (For example high-temperature superconductivity, safe storage and transport of hydrogen for a post-hydrocarbon economy, environmental global warming and energy efficiency issues).

· The global demand for REMs has increased significantly in line with their expansion into high-end technology, environment, and economic areas.

· They are extremely important for many modern technologies, including consumer electronics, computers, and networks, communications, clean energy, advanced transportation, health care, environmental mitigation, national defense etc.

· Due to their unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties, they help in technologies perform with reduced weight, reduced emissions, and energy consumption; therefore give them greater efficiency, performance, miniaturization, speed, durability, and thermal stability.