Hoatson, Jaireth and Miezitis (2011) produced an outstanding report on rare earth elements (REEs) in Australia reporting that the REEs are a group of seventeen specialty metals that comprise the lanthanide series of elements: lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), in addition to scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y), which show similar physical and chemical properties to the lanthanides.
The REE have unique catalytic, metallurgical, nuclear, electrical, magnetic, and luminescent properties. Their strategic importance is indicated by their use in a number of emerging and diverse technologies that are becoming increasingly significant in today’s society. Applications range from routine (e.g., lighter flints, glass polishing mediums, car alternators), to high-technology (lasers, magnets, batteries, fiber-optic telecommunication cables), to those that have futuristic purposes (high-temperature superconductivity, safe storage and transport of hydrogen for a post-hydrocarbon economy, environmental global warming and energy efficiency issues). Over the last two decades, the global demands of REE have significantly increased sympathetically with their dramatic expansion into high-technological, environmental, and economical
environments.
REE are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, but known minable concentrations are less common than for most other exploited metals. Past demand for REE has been met by a small number of producers and mines. Since the mid-1990s, China has dominated the global supply of REE, with most production derived from the very large Bayan Obo iron-niobium-REE deposit (Inner Mongolia, China) and from lateritic clays (southern China). In 1992, China surpassed the United States of America (USA) as the world’s largest producer of rare-earth oxides (REO); being responsible for 95.5% of the world’s output in 2009. At the end of 2010, China held 55 million tonnes (48.3%) of the world’s economic resources of REO, followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (former members of the Soviet Union) with 19 million tonnes
(16.7%) and the USA with 13 million tonnes (11.4%).
Australia’s global REE impact in 2009 amounted to no recorded production and total Economic Demonstrated Resources in 2010 were 1.65 million tonnes of REO (1.45% of the global inventory).
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