Rare Earth Elements Briefing Note by GSL

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining / Rare Earth Exploration, Mining, Processing, & Uses

Date posted: 11/25/13

A briefing note by the Geological Society of London (GSL), December 2011. The GSL has produced this briefing on these vital mineral resources to inform debate among scientists, policy-makers, potential investors and other industry players. The rare earth elements (REE) have a wide variety of uses and applications, from LCD and plasma screens to jet engines and medical tracers. An increasingly important area of their use is in the production of low-carbon technologies such as wind turbines, electric traction motors and hybrid vehicles. As a result, demand for REE has increased by more than 50 per cent in the last decade, and is expected to rise further. A June 2010 study by the European Union identified the REE as among the 14 mineral commodities most critical to the EU economy, but most deposits are located outside of Europe, with the majority found in China, the CIS (Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), the USA and Australia. The increasing demand for REE, and constraints on their supply, have led to concerns about their future availability. In 2009, China produced around 97 per cent of global REE. Recent reductions in Chinese export quotas have led to increased prices, and exacerbated these concerns. While geological scarcity in absolute terms is not likely to be a problem, the technical, financial, environmental and regulatory challenges which must be overcome to establish new REE mines could mean disruptions in supply over the next decade.