China Cutting Back 72% Of Its Exports Of Rare Earth Metals

Posted By on August 29, 2010

Interesting to say the least….rare earth elemnts are used in almost everything that is high tech…….

Bloomberg reports that China is cutting back 72% of its exports of Rare Earth metals.  China has said that environmental issues are the reason for the cutbacks.

72% drop in availability of any commodity is important. RE’s are important. Japan and the U.S. are already protesting the ban. The rest of the world’s manufacturing base will soon follow. This could become an interesting problem.

And all those folks were saying that China would be the world’s economic growth engine.

 

 
As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanides   Rare earth elements are incorporated into many modern technological devices, including superconductors, samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron high-flux rare-earth magnets, electronic polishers, refining catalysts and hybrid car components (primarily batteries and magnets.  The term “rare earth” arises from the rare earth minerals from which they were first isolated, which were uncommon oxide-type minerals (earths) found in Gadolinite extracted from one mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. However, with the exception of the highly-unstable promethium, rare earth elements are found in relatively high concentrations in the earth’s crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust at 68 parts per million.
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Z Symbol Name Etymology Selected Usages
57 La Lanthanum from the Greek “lanthanon,” meaning I am hidden. High refractive index glass, flint, hydrogen storage, battery-electrode, camera lens
58 Ce Cerium for the Roman deity of fertility Ceres. chemical oxidising agent, polishing powder, yellow colors in glass and ceramics, catalyst for Self-cleaning oven etc.
59 Pr Praseodymium from the Greek “praso,” meaning leek-green, and “didymos,” meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, green colors in glass and ceramics, flint
60 Nd Neodymium from the Greek “neo,” meaning new-one, and “didymos,” meaning twin. Rare-earth magnets, laser, violet colors in glass and ceramics, ceramic capacitor
61 Pm Promethium for the Titan Prometheus, who brought fire to mortals. Nuclear battery
62 Sm Samarium for Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who discovered the rare earth ore samarskite. Rare-earth magnets, Laser, neutron capture, maser
63 Eu Europium for the continent of Europe. Red and blue phosphors, laser, mercury-vapor lamp
64 Gd Gadolinium for Johan Gadolin (1760–1852), to honor his investigation of rare earths. Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, laser, x-ray tube, computer memory, neutron capture
65 Tb Terbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where the first rare earth ore was discovered. Green phosphors, laser, fluorescent lamp
66 Dy Dysprosium from the Greek “dysprositos,” meaning hard to get. Rare-earth magnets, laser,
67 Ho Holmium for Stockholm (in Latin, “Holmia”), native city of one of its discoverers. Laser
68 Er Erbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Laser, vanadium steel
69 Tm Thulium for the mythological land of Thule. Portable X-ray machine
70 Yb Ytterbium for the village of Ytterby, Sweden. Infrared Laser, chemical reducing agent, High-temperature superconductors (YBCO)
71 Lu Lutetium for Lutetia, the city which later became Paris.

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