Editor’s letter December 2011
Let There Be Peace on Earth And Let Peace Begin with Rare Earth Minerals
By Ron Wasczcak, Conoco Phillips
There have been a number of articles recently published in Geology, Scientific American, and National Geographic that call attention to rare earth elements (REE) and their hosts, rare earth minerals (REM). On the periodic table, the rare earths are elements 57 through 71, and have these less than familiar names: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium. Some researchers also consider scandium 21, and yttrium 39, to be rare earth elements. Rare earth elements are contained primarily in the minerals bastnasite and monazite. Secondary resources are apatite, cheralite, eudialyte, loparite, phosphorites, xenotime, rare-earth-bearing clays, and spent uranium solutions. Though rare earth minerals are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, it is unusual to find them in concentrations high enough for economical extraction, and discovered minable concentrations are far less common than most other ores. Hence, the descriptive word “rare”.
During the past few decades, the demand for many items that utilize REEs has been rapidly rising. Items that are common and familiar include: rechargeable batteries and batteries for hybrid automobiles, automotive pollution control catalysts, and portable electronics such as laptop computers, cellular telephones, digital cameras, camcorders, compact disk and video disk players, and MP-3 players. Medical applications include dental and surgical lasers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), medical contrast agents and isotopes, and positron emission tomography (PET) scintillation detectors. Other perhaps less familiar applications of REEs in manufacturing include: light alloys for aerospace, ceramic capacitors, high-temperature superconductors, microwave filters, amplifiers in fiber-optic data transmission, chemical catalysts for self-cleaning ovens and catalytic cracking in petroleum refining, laser-range finders and precision-guided weapons systems, phosphors for televisions and monitors, fluorescent and mercury-vapor lamps and carbon arc lighting, permanent magnets stable at high temperature, high-refractive index glass and glass polishing, camera lenses and night-vision and welding goggles, and as colorants in glasses, ceramics and enamels.
The rapid rise in demand for REEs is coincident with new increasing concern over the geopolitics of discovered and undiscovered REM reserves and resources.
National Geographic has reported “China supplies 97 percent of the world’s rare earth needs and has 48 percent of the world reserves. The United States has 13 percent of world reserves, and Australia, Canada and Russia have substantial deposits as well. Until the 1980s, the United States led the world in rare earth production, thanks largely to the Mountain Pass mine in California. American dominance ended in the mid 1980s when China entered the world market with a roar. With government support, cheap labor, and lax or nonexistent environmental regulations, its rare earth industries undercut all competitors. The Mountain Pass mine closed in 2002. Over the next decade, China is expected to steadily reduce rare earth exports in order to protect the supplies of its own rapidly growing industries, which already consume about 60 percent of the rare earths produced in the country. Fears of future shortages have sent prices soaring. The world is now scrambling to find other sources of supply. “
The United States is the second largest importer of REEs; Japan is the largest importer.
Geology reported on the dangers of a dominant world producer of REEs, as is China: “Supply and demand normally determine the market price of a commodity. As supplies shrink, prices go up. If a single country controls almost all of the production, and makes a firm decision not to export, then the entire supply of a commodity can be quickly cut off. That is a dangerous situation when new sources of supply take so long to develop.”
But hark the herald, there is news of hope in regard to potential and long term accessibility to newfound deposits of REEs. This past September the U.S. Geological Survey released its report “Resource Estimate for Afghanistan Rare Earth Prospect”, a study funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO).
USGS reports that Afghanistan’s Khanneshin carbonatite contains a major potential source of rare earth elements. The prospect’s principal ore mineral is bastnasite, the same mineral that harbors most of the world’s rare earth reserves. The prospect is comparable in grade to world-class deposits in China and Mountain Pass, California. The cconservative estimate for the tonnage of this deposit puts Afghanistan sixth on a list of countries with the largest rare earth reserves, and with enough reserves to supply the world’s rare earth needs for 10 years based on current consumption. Ambassador Marc Grossman, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said “The United States will continue to support the Government of Afghanistan’s efforts to develop these resources through private-sector investment in a responsible, transparent, and sustainable manner that benefits the Afghan people, expands markets, and promotes regional prosperity.”