The importance of rare-earth elements can be judged by the often-quoted statements which regard these as the vitamins required for the shift from a carbon-based economy to the new 21st century electron economy.
The group of metals referred to as rare earth elements (REE) comprises the 15 elements of the lanthanide series. In addition, yttrium (Y) and scandium (Sc) are often grouped with the lanthanides and referred to as REE. Rare earths are so known because unlike resources such as gold, rare earths can't simply be dug out of the ground and immediately processed.
Rare earth minerals are commonly used in high-tech devices, automotive, clean energy and defence. About 35% of global reserves are in China, the most in the world, and a country is a mining machine, producing 70% of total rare earths in 2018. China had recognised the importance of REEs, when way back in 1997, its ex-premier Deng Xiaoping had commented that China would be for rare earth metals what the Middle East was to oil.
U.S. consumption of rare earth compounds and metals relies heavily on imports, which rose to $160 million in 2018. Eighty percent were from China. When the trade war with US was escalating, China had threatened to curb exports of rare earth minerals to the United States.
With more than 1,000 tonnes of rare earth deposits in South Australia alone, the country could prove to be one of the world's leading rare earths producers outside of China. Australia's rare earth deposits and the market conditions could make it the new rare earths powerhouse.
Australian rare-earth miner Lynas is likely to receive funding from the U.S. Defense Department for a planned processing plant in Texas, a project that Washington hopes will lessen its reliance on China for strategically important materials.
According to some forecasts, China will in the next few years need to become an importer of neodymium-praseodymium, a combination of rare earth metals vital to the manufacture of high strength permanent magnets. Australia is the country best positioned to fill that gap. Many Australian companies have very advanced rare earths projects, where the focus is on neodymium-praseodymium as the key output.
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