Sustainability of the Rare Earths Industry

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining

McLellan, and 3 co-authors, reported in 2014 that Rare Earths have been of considerable interest in recent years for a variety of reasons, in particular due to concerns over the security of supply for modern high efficiency electronics and energy technologies. Such concerns have placed them among the list of “critical” or “strategic” elements in countries such as the United States of America,the European Union, Japan and even in the largest producer and holder of reserves, China. Focus has been given to the environmental impacts of production, and on the distribution of reserves and politico-economic conflict over supply, but international academic work quantifying these impacts is lacking. Moreover, broader consideration of sustainability impacts and benefits in a systematic manner – particularly in regard to the social impacts of REE extraction, processing and utilization – is not yet apparent.

The authors undertake a review of the literature and state-of-play of sustainability assessment of rare earth elements. Furthermore, the paper highlights areas of sustainability research considered by academic and industrial representatives to be essential for filling these gaps, and a pathway forward towards a more sustainable rare earths industry.

From the review and analysis presented in this article, the following topics of research that would benefit the rare earth industry in the short to mid-term are:

• Quantification of the environmental and social externalities of extraction and processing of RE - firstly from conventional sources as a baseline, but also from the unconventional sources under consideration (this should include a widely-based and rigorous life cycle assessment),
• Consideration of policies to enhance the closing of the material cycle, enabling more cost effective recycling,
• Effective policies and methods for waste valorization, treatment and storage in the RE industry,
• Better integration of community stakeholder concerns along the supply chain.

A number of emerging initiatives to link industry and academia are being funded globally, with research into the sustainability impacts and implications of these key materials as important elements of the research agenda.