Rare Earth Elements Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023

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

Date posted: 01/12/16

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 chemical elements that occur together in the periodic table. The group consists of yttrium, scandium, and 15 lanthanide elements (lanthanum, cerium, thulium, ytterbium, praseodymium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, holmium, erbium, and lutetium). The 17 rare earth elements are found in all rare earth elements deposits. However, their distribution and concentration varies. Rare earth elements are broadly classified into two categories ... light rare earth elements and heavy rare earth elements.These have varying levels of uses and demand. Mineral deposits of rare earth elements are usually rich in either light rare earth elements or heavy rare earth elements; they rarely contain both in significant quantities. Among rare earth elements, demand for lanthanum and cerium is the largest in the world. Rare earth elements are classified based on various properties such as catalytic, magnetic, electrical, chemical, and optical. Thus, rare earth elements,often referred as seeds of technology by the Japanese, exhibit multiple properties. This makes make them suitable for usage in a wide range of end-user industries. The permanent magnet industry is the largest end-user industry for rare earth elements. Lanthanum and cerium are used in the manufacture of catalytic converters. These help convert the pollutants in engine exhaust system into non-toxic compounds. Rechargeable batteries made from neodymium, lanthanum, cerium, and praseodymium (combined with manganese, nickel, cobalt and/or aluminum) are used in car batteries in hybrid electric vehicles, electronic devices, and power tools.Lanthanum and cerium are used in the manufacture of catalytic converters, which convert pollutants in engine exhaust system into non-toxic compounds. In coming years the monopoly of China in global rare elements market is expected to witness a decline.