Pub 9 2021 Issue 1

Recycling industrial-related scrap metal is one of the things we do best! www.umw.com | 801.364.5679 Utah Metal Works, Inc. Scandium, yttrium, and lanthanide are in Group IIIB on the periodic table. What that means is they have three electrons in their outer shell that form +3 ions in solution. The lanthanide series, listed below the rest of the periodic table in two rows, form the same ions and can be chemically separated in similar ways. The elements in the first row of the lanthanide series are the ones that are consid- ered to be rare earth elements. The term “rare earths” refers to oxides that have rare earth elements in them. (An oxide is a binary chemical compound that occurs when oxygen atoms combine with other elements. For example, water and carbon dioxide are both oxides.) Oxides can be acidic, basic, amphoteric (that is, it has both acid and base reactions), and neutral (not acidic or basic). Lanthanides are interesting because they have photophysical proper- ties such as long-lived luminescence. You can make highly lumines- cent complexes from them. Separating rare earth elements from other elements is tricky. Ordinary chemical methods don’t work because their chemical properties are too similar. Between 1787 and 1947, some scientists spent their entire career trying to get a 99% pure rare earth; the most common method was through fractional crystallization that focused on differences in solubility. In 1947, two different scientists and their colleagues came up with successful new methods that depend on ion exchanges: Gerald Boyd at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Frank Harold Spedding at the Ames Laboratory in Iowa. The USGS Mineral Commodity Summary in 2017 listed the following usage categories for rare earth elements: The need for rare earths first surfaced in the 1960s when people began buying color televisions. However, demand for rare earth ele- ments has increased dramatically since 2000 because of their appli- cations in cellphones and computers. Rechargeable batteries often use them, too. Electric and hybrid vehicles use substantially more rare earth elements than cellphones and computers. Even though the market is fairly saturated with cellphones and computers, the shift from gas-powered engines to electric and hybrid ones will unleash an even greater demand in the future, especially for neodymium and praseodymium. Which countries produce rare earths? China is the current leader. That is because China created a monopoly. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China first got into the market and sold rare earths at such low prices that U.S. mines couldn’t compete and had to close. It controlled 95% of production in 2010. China then cut back its exports and raised its rare earth prices — more than 500% in some cases. Also, China often threatens to cut off rare-earth exports to the U.S. and U.S. allies. The U.S., Australia, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia and other places sensibly decided to get back into mining rare earths when faced with these new circumstances. Diversification is as important in mining as it is in the stock market, PPE and grocery essentials. If one source goes away, you can still rely on others to meet your needs. Domestic production of rare earths matters because (as the U.S. has learned during the last year) long supply chains are also brittle supply chains. There’s just no substitute for being able to produce goods within national borders. Mining rare earths responsibly within the U.S. matters. You may not have realized how much of a role it plays in maintaining your day-to- day life, but without it, 2020 would have been exponentially worse. X CATEGORY PERCENTAGE CATALYSTS 55 CERAMICS OR GLASS 15 METALLURGY OR ALLOYS 10 GLASS POLISHING 5 OTHER 15 FOCUS 15