YesYou've probably heard a lot of talk about “rare earth elements/minerals” lately. China and USA fight for a piece rare earth materials market. US makes mining, especially rare earths, key support status Ukraine is at war with Russia. Race for mine rare earth minerals from sensitive deep-sea ecosystems.
But despite all the recent fuss, how rare are rare earth minerals really? It turns out it's not that uncommon.
When you consider their total amount in the planet's crust, some so-called rare earth minerals are actually more common than more familiar substances such as lead, copper and gold. The supposed rare minerals, useful in everything from smartphones to military weapons, are defined as containing one or more of 17 rare earth elements, but can be found across the globe. Their nominal rarity has less to do with their overall abundance and more to do with their habit of not occurring in dense, concentrated growths (as copper, iron, or gold do), making them much more expensive to mine and refine.
Here are some of the key rare earths and their median crustal abundance (MCA), a standard measure of how common they are in our planet's outer layer.
europium: This rare earth element was one of the first to be extracted and processed on a commercial scale in the United States. In the early 1950s, europium helped produce the fundamental chemicals needed to make the fancy new technology of color television a reality. Consists of two isotopes (151me and 153EU), natural europium is usually mined along with other rare earth elements, and it occurs in the earth's crust in larger quantities than gold, silver or platinum, with an MCA of about 2 ppm. (Gold exists in concentrations of about 0.004 parts per million.)
Samarium: Another useful rare earth element is samarium, which can be used in lasers capable of high-resolution microscopy, or combined with cobalt to create magnets capable of operating at very high temperatures, an important feature of radar technology used by the US during the Cold War. The element samarium, which does not exist in nature in a free form but is part of other minerals such as monazite and florencite, is also relatively common, with an MCA of about 7 ppm.
Read more: “Lithium, rebel of the elements»
Erbium: Erbium has an MCA of about 3 ppm and this rare earth element has many important applications in modern technology. Its fluorescent ER is pink.3+ The ions can amplify light, amplifying information-rich signals in fiber optic cables, making possible the first low-cost long-distance telephony and now worldwide data transmission via the Internet and laser surgery.
Cerium: The most common rare earth element is cerium. This element is as common as copper, with an MCA content of 68 ppm. It was first used along with another rare earth element, thorium, in the 19th century in gas lamps to illuminate European cities.
Once these and other rare earth elements were extracted, processed, and combined with other materials, they became pretty damn ubiquitous. In fact, chances are you have some rare earth metals in your pocket, purse, desk, or entryway right now. Rare earth minerals are used to make high-tech magnets used in electric vehicles, electronic components for microprocessors and smartphones, and glass for computer monitors and camera lenses.
As rare earth elements continue to make headlines, remember that they are not so much rare as they are inconvenient to mine, refine, and turn into the things we modern humans use.
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