Abstract
Rare earths are used in the renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines, batteries, catalysts and electric cars. Current mining, processing and sustainability aspects have been described in this paper. Rare earth availability is undergoing a temporary decline due mainly to quotas being imposed by the Chinese government on export and action taken against illegal mining operations. The reduction in availability coupled with increasing demand has led to increased prices for rare earths. Although the prices have come down recently, this situation is likely to be volatile until material becomes available from new sources or formerly closed mines are reopened. Although the number of identified deposits in the world is close to a thousand, there are only a handful of actual operating mines. Prominent currently operating mines are Bayan Obo in China, Mountain Pass in the US and recently opened Mount Weld in Australia. The major contributor to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of rare earth processing is hydrochloric acid (ca. 38%), followed by steam use (32%) and electricity (12%). Life cycle based water and energy consumption is significantly higher compared with other metals.
Highlights
Rare earth elements (REEs) include the lanthanide series of the periodic table from atomic number of 57 to 71 starting with lanthanum (La) to lutetium (Lu) and including scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y).They are in short supply internationally with domination by China in production and trade
The objective of this paper is to describe a review on the overview of REE mining, mineralogy, extraction processes, and selected environmental impacts
The actual availability of these rare earths relates to their mineralogy, since having rich ore bodies means that these elements can be mined and processed more than if they are distributed evenly within the earth’s crust
Summary
Rare earth elements (REEs) include the lanthanide series of the periodic table from atomic number of 57 to 71 starting with lanthanum (La) to lutetium (Lu) and including scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y). They are in short supply internationally with domination by China in production and trade. Rare earths are further divided into the light rare earth elements (LREE) and heavy rare earth elements (HREE) with the divide falling between the unpaired and paired electrons in the 4f shell [2] This divide is somewhat arbitrary and the common convention in industry considers that the LREE includes from lanthanum to europium and includes scandium.
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