What are 3 uses for rare earth metals?

What are 3 uses for rare earth metals?

Uses of Rare Earth Elements Rare earth metals and alloys that contain them are used in many devices that people use every day such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting and much more.

What makes rare earth metals so useful?

The rare earths are 17 metallic elements, located in the middle of the periodic table (atomic numbers 21, 39, and 57–71). These metals have unusual fluorescent, conductive, and magnetic properties—which make them very useful when alloyed, or mixed, in small quantities with more common metals such as iron.

What is the most useful Rare-earth element?

One of them is neodymium, because it’s the most important REE used in permanent magnets. The others are heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), including europium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium.

What country has the most rare earth minerals?

China
China. Unsurprisingly, China has the highest reserves of rare earth minerals at 44 million MT. The country was also the world’s leading rare earths producer in 2020 by a long shot, putting out 140,000 MT.

Why are rare earth metals used in smartphones?

These metals give rise to striking colors such as green, blue and red due to their luminescent property. Additionally, rare-earth are responsible for making the smart-phones vibrate, are used in the speaker system, as well as in many of the electronic circuits that allow the phone to work.

What is the most sort after rare earth?

Heavy rare earths are often harder to source. They include metals like dysprosium and terbium, which play a critical role in defense, technology and electric vehicles. Neodymium and praseodymium are some of the most sought-after light rare earth elements crucial in products such as motors, turbines and medical devices.

Is rare earth a good investment?

Despite their abundance, rare earth metals are valuable because they are hard to get, and they are in high demand. Investors can gain exposure to rare earth metals through exploration and processing companies, such as Neo Performance Materials (TSX: NEO) and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX).

Why does China have a monopoly on rare earths?

China leveraged its lax environmental laws by way of an indirect ecological subsidy in the rare metal industry. However, the turning point came in 2010 when the world realised that China had a crippling monopoly where it could punish any country by controlling the supply of the rare earth metals.

What is the largest rare earth mine in the world?

The Bayan Obo mine
The Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, China is the world’s biggest rare earth mine. China is the biggest producer of the rare earth elements in the world.

Can you name all 17 rare earth elements?

The 17 rare-earth elements are cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium ( Tb ), thulium (Tm), ytterbium ( Yb ), and yttrium (Y).

What are the uses of rare earth metals?

Uses of Rare Earth Elements. Rare earth metals and alloys that contain them are used in many devices that people use every day such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting and much more.

What are some examples of rare earth metals?

In terms of abundance in the Earth’s crust, the rarest metals are; gold, platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, tellurium and rhenium.

What is the rarest natural mineral on Earth?

Painite was first discovered by British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Pain in 1951 and recognized as a new mineral in 1957. For many years only one specimen of the dark red crystal was in existence, housed at the British Museum in London, making it the world’s rarest gemstone.