scholarly journals China, The World Trade Organization, And The Market For Rare Earth Minerals

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Giacalone ◽  
Genai Greenidge

Rare earth elements (also referred to as rare earth minerals, rare earth metals, green elements, rare earths or simply REEs) are comprised of 17 elements of the periodic table. The metals are often found combined together in ores and must be separated into its individual elements. On the supply side of the market, China is currently the largest producer of rare earth elements in the world, mining at least 90% of total world production. Consequently, many countries around the world rely on imports of these REEs to facilitate production of the various systems and products that are dependent on the rare earth metals as raw materials. With one supplier effectively monopolizing the rare earth industry, this imposes severe supply-chain risks to the producers of products that rely on rare earth minerals. After several actions that have restricted the supply, the United States, the European Union, and Japan have challenged China for violating provisions of its membership in the World Trade Organization. This paper will examine the rare earth industry, Chinas near-monopoly, global supply-chain risks, and strategies to reduce dependence on China, including the invocation of the WTOs dispute resolution process.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ochoa ◽  
E. Monteblanco ◽  
L. Cerpa ◽  
A. Gutarra-Espinoza ◽  
L. Avilés-Félix

AbstractA recently discovered the rare-earth-rich site in Capacsaya, located at 123 km northwest of Cusco, at the south of Peru, contains significant quantities of light and heavy rare-earth elements such as neodymium, lanthanum, cerium, europium, and yttrium. This work reports the identification of rare-earth elements and their associated minerals using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. Five (5) samples extracted from different locations at the Capacsaya site were characterized and identified K-feldspar as the mineral associated with the rare-earth elements in a representative sample with a high concentration of lanthanum and cerium. The results showed rare-earth elements contained within the mineral phase monazite, being cerium the dominant element in the phase (La, Ce, Nd)PO$$_4$$ 4 . Finally, through the electrostatic separation process we demonstrate that it was possible to achieve an efficient separation of the K-feldspar phase in the particle size range 75–150 $$\upmu$$ μ m.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1009 ◽  
pp. 149-154
Author(s):  
Tanongsak Yingnakorn ◽  
Piamsak Laokhen ◽  
Loeslakkhana Sriklang ◽  
Tapany Patcharawit ◽  
Sakhob Khumkoa

High power neodymium magnets have been used extensively, such as components of hard disk drives, electric vehicles, and maglev trains. This type of magnet contains of high concentration of rare earth elements. After the device is out of service, the magnet will be removed and the rare earth element contained in the magnet will be extracted in order to reuse for any purposes. Recently, the study on extraction of rare earth elements (REE) from neodymium magnets is increased. However, there was only few research regarding to the extraction of rare earth metals by using a water leaching method. In this study, rare-earth elements were extracted from neodymium magnet scrap by using selective leaching technique. Initially, magnets were leached with 2 M of sulfuric acid for 24 hrs. Then, the leached solution was heated at 110°C in order to remove water and the green powder was remained. The green powder was further roasted in a muffle furnace at various temperatures from 750°C to 900°C for 2 hrs. and subsequently leached by water. Finally, the iron oxide residue was separated from rare earth element solution by filtration. Based on this experiment, it was found that the purity of the rare earth metals can be achieved up to 99.4%.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Giacalone

This paper examines the market for the Rare earth elements. These are comprised of 17 elements of the periodic table which include 15 elements from the group known as lanthanides and two additional elements known as scandium and yttrium. The metals are often found combined together in ores and must be separated into its individual elements. The fact is that rare earth metals are not rare in terms of the quantity present in the earths crust. However, the metals are less concentrated than other more common metals and the extraction and separation processes necessitate high research and development costs and large capital outlays.The various applications of rare earth elements can be broadly classified into four major categories, namely: High Technology Consumer Products, Environmentally Friendly Products, Industrial and Medical Devices, and National Defense Systems. The demand for such high technology products is rapidly increasing causing a simultaneous upsurge in the demand for rare earth metals as well.On the supply side, China dominates the production rare earth elements, mining approximately 97% of total world production. Consequently, most countries must rely on imports of these REEs to facilitate production of the various systems and products that are dependent on the rare earth metals as raw materials. This near-monopoly imposes several supply-chain risks on the importing nations which are exploring ways to mitigate the potential economic harm associated with these risks.


1962 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1127-1153
Author(s):  
V FASSEL ◽  
R CURRY ◽  
R KNISELEY

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