The name “rare earth” does not mean that these metals are rarely found in the interior of the earth. Some of them come across even more often than copper, lead or tin, but their concentration on individual sites makes commercial production commercially unprofitable. In nature, rare earths are mainly found in a scattered state: along with other metals, they are part of a variety of minerals from which it is almost impossible to isolate the necessary REE.
Today, only 2-3% of all used rare earth elements are obtained from the earth's crust, the rest are extracted from mineral waste, including phosphorus fertilizers. The complexity of extracting rare earths leads to the fact that the use of even a small amount of them in production significantly increases the cost of the final product. At the same time, REEs do not have to be part of the goods received by the consumer. For example, gasoline does not contain rare earth elements, but cerium and lanthanum catalysts are used for its production, the price of which is included in the price of the finished product.
A total of 17 rare earth elements are known — 15 lanthanides, scandium and yttrium. In Dmitry Mendeleev's table of chemical elements, they are numbered 57 to 71, as well as 21 and 39. They all have similar physical and chemical characteristics, including:
Despite the similarities between rare earth elements, each of them occupies its own technological niche. For example, neodymium (Nd) and samarium (Sm) are most commonly used to create permanent magnets; europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), and dysprosium (Dy) for fluorescent light sources; gadolinium (Gd) for optical and magnetic recording.
With the development of technology, global consumption of rare earth metals is also increasing: in the first half of 2022, the demand for rare earth materials increased by more than 60% compared to the same period in 2021. Main applications:
According to analysts, demand for rare earth metals will increase rapidly in the coming years. In particular, this is due to the expansion of the production of electric vehicles and hybrid cars: to manufacture a power unit and transmission, one such vehicle requires more than 2.5 kg of permanent magnets.
Neodymium magnets are also one of the main elements of wind turbines. Today, there are about 30,000 wind turbines of various capacities in the world, and from 100 to 700 kg of permanent magnets per megawatt of converted energy were used to produce each of them.
Another promising industry that requires more and more rare earths every year is robotics and robotization of production processes. Over the past 12 years, robot production has increased almost tenfold. For example, in 2010, only 60,000 items were assembled in the world, and in 2022, 366,000 units of robotic equipment were produced in China alone. This industry is in dire need of continuous supplies of neodymium for permanent magnets in electric motors, and it also provides high demand for other rare earth metals necessary for the manufacture of sensors, processors, hard drives, etc.
China is the main supplier of rare earth metals in the world. But due to the growing demand for rare earth elements and their strategic importance, more and more countries are engaged in their own development in the field of extraction and production of rare earth elements. According to preliminary estimates, Russia is ranked 5th in the world in terms of natural rare earth reserves. But so far, more than 90% of rare earths are imported into the country from abroad. By 2025, this figure is planned to be reduced to 50% by developing new deposits and building large processing plants that will make it possible to obtain REE from mineral fertilizer waste.
