Speech on Rare Earth’s Elements

This is a script-copy of my speech of which I will be speaking tomorrow in Cardiff University Main Building room 3.01 at 4.20pm. This speech is part of the EA3019 Ores & Ore Genesis module.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

Hi and good morning everyone. My name is Azad and I will be delivering a short presentation on Rare Earth’s Element, or in short, REE. In my presentation, I will start of by giving a short introduction on what REE is all about. Later on, we will see how REE is significant to the world through its production. I will then end this presentation by showing how REE price trend look like for the past few years.

1. Introduction

In general, REE is known to be a group of 15 metallic elements within the Lanthanoid group, with Ytterium as an addition to the group due to its similarities in physical and chemical behaviour. Geochemists differentiated REE into 2 categories, Light REE (LREE) and Heavy REE (HREE). REE with low atomic numbers are grouped in LREE and the rest are in the HREE group. Physically, REE has an iron grey, silver lustrous metallic appearance. It has a soft, malleable and ductile texture with melting point ranging from 800-1600 degrees Celcius. LREE melts at lower melting point than HREE. Geologically, REE can be found either in areas of alkaline to per-alkaline igneous complexes, pegmatites or in carbonate intrusives.

The main ores for REE are Bastnazite, monazite and ion adsorption clay. Bastnazite and monazite have a relatively higher recovery rates than ion adsorption clay. However, it is highly economical to mine and process ion adsorption clay ores, which makes it significant to continue exploiting such ores. Of the 16 elements in the REE group, Cerium has the highest abundance with 60ppm. Thulium and Lutetium, on the other hand, are least abundant with only 0.5ppm. During mining, is is common to find copper or other metal ores together with REE. However, since the processing phase of REE is much more complicated and complex than the other metals, this makes REE more expensinve in the market.

2. Global production

REE is used in many industries that affect almost all human beings. Processed REE metals are used in iPods, batteries, magnets, computers, cars, other transportations, weaponry etc. BCC Reasearch have shown that the demand of REE in 2005 increased 9% than in 2004. Projection to the trend of demands up until 2010 shows that average demands for REE is 10.1% per annum.

To meet customers’ demands, REE has to undergo a series of processes from the time it’s found. After the mining process, the REE is concentrated, cracked and extracted into concentrate subgroups. They are then separated and smelted for higher purity. Each group is then mixed according to specified demands, which is later on being added into products.

In the 1880’s, REE explorations were vast in Australia and Brazil. Moving on to 1950’s, REE was found in many other countries such as India and my home country Malaysia. It was in 1965 that the US rose in the electrics and electronics industry when they exploited REE in their homeland. However, China surpassed any country in the world by becoming THE highest producer of global REE demands since its discovery and exploration in the 1990’s. 3 of the famous REE-producing regions in China are the Batou, Sichuan and Jiangxi regions.

The Bayan Obo mine in Batou, China has the world’s largest REE deposit, with 35 million out of 43 million tonnes of China’s REE reserves. It generally has the bastnazite and monazite deposite, and this counts for more than 50% of China’s REE production. However, there is a decrease in production from 2005 until 2007.

China, being one of the world’s key economic players, introduced the mining quota and export policy in 2005. These policies are said to be significant to the country to avoid over-mining with low yield and to enforce a stricter environmental standards due to environmental concerns raised by numerous organisations globally. The poilicies are also important to ensure that the REE mined are sufficient enough to meet China’s domestic needs at a time when the country’s economy is rapidly growing. These issues had inspired exploration companies outside China to look for REE at other places to meet everyone’s needs, which generally explains why REE is expensive.

3. Price

REE had a stable price of an average of US$45.00 per kg in the 1990’s. However, it dropped significantly low, between US$5 - 10 per kg sometime in 1997 onwards due to overproduction of REE in China. Supply was more than what was needed. Recognising this as a factor that could increase their income, China then stricten their production in the early 21st century, as mentioned above, which had the world witnessed of an increase in price, until now.

REE is sold according to its different elements with different grades. At 99% purity, the average price of an element of REE mined from the Baotou region is US$ 4,232.00 per metric tonne.

Conclusion

I certainly hope that this presentation is somewhat useful to everyone here. Thank you.

Reference

Hedrick, J.B.  2008. Rare Earth. U.S. Geological Survey 2006 Minerals Yearbook.
Lynas Corporation. 2008. Delivering tomorrow’s material today. Lynas Corporation ltd annual report 2008.
Sinton, C.W. 2007. Study of the Rare Earth’s resources and markets for the Mt. Weld Complex for Lynas Corporation ltd. Massachusetts: BCC Research.
http://www.infomine.com/
http://www.lynascorp.com

One Response to “Speech on Rare Earth’s Elements”

1. Herath says:

   September 30, 2009 at 7:48 am

   How do I know the value of my REE reserve by using REE concentrations. I need to know the price before processing