Smartphones, hybrid cars, electric vehicles, wind turbines, military equipment, and so many things that we use in our day-to-day lives that we do not take seriously are made possible, thanks to a group of elements that seats at the base of the periodic table. In fact, scientists see them as the hope for future innovations and technology and they are gradually becoming expensive in all ways. These elements were referred to as rare earth metals which include cerium, dysprosium, europium, neodymium, and 13 more elements
These elements have the majority being mined in China since china has the highest amount of rare earth metals currently. Most rare earth metals can be found in China apart from Promethium which is very scarce around the world. Rare earth elements do not stay singularly, but rather as a compound that is separated chemically and with lots of energy. These rare earth elements are found in manganese nodules, which are located in the Atlantic but finding this might lead to destroying the sea ecosystem as well as destroying sea life.
Rare earth elements are so useful in the world but the problem is how to find them. With metals like iron, lead, zinc, and chromium have distinctive deposits and properly defined structures that allow for these metals to be identified but this isn't the same for Rare earth elements. Rare earth is basically identified through geo-chemical analysis
Rare earth elements can be found in the Minerals in the table below.
| Mineral | Formula |
|---|---|
| Allanite | (Y,Ln,Ca)2(Al,Fe3+)3(SiO4)3(OH) |
| Apatite | (Ca,Ln)5(PO4)3(F,Cl,OH) |
| Bastnaesite | (Ln,Y) (CO3)F |
| Eudialyte | Na4(Ca,Ln)2(Fe2+,Mn2+,Y)ZrSi8O22(OH,Cl)2 |
| Fergusonite | (Ln,Y)NbO4 |
| Gittinsite | CaZrSi2O7 |
| Parisite | Ca (Ln)2(CO3)3F2 |
| Pyrochlore | (Ca,Na,Ln)2Nb2O6(OH,F) |
| Rinkite (rinkolite) | (Ca,Ln)4Na(Na,Ca)2Ti(Si2O7)2(O,F)2 |
| Iimoriite | Y2(SiO4) (CO3) |
| Kainosite | Ca2(Y,Ln)2Si4O12(CO3)·H2O |
| Steenstrupine | Na14Ln6Mn2Fe2(Zr,Th) (Si6O18)2(PO4)7·3H2O |
| Synchysite | Ca (Ln) (CO3)2F |
| Loparite | (Ln,Na,Ca) (Ti,Nb)O3 |
| Monazite | (Ln,Th)PO4 |
| Mosandrite | (Na,Ca)3Ca3Ln (Ti,Nb,Zr) (Si2O7)2(O,OH,F)4 |
| Xenotime | YPO4 |
| Zircon | (Zr, Ln)SiO4 |
Compared to recent times where the use of these rare earth elements can be identified such as Neodymium being used to make magnets stronger, Yttrium in white LED lights, and vivid colors on computer screens, and Lanthanum is important in electric car batteries as it makes them more efficient. In the past, the uses were not known. Elements such as Cerium which was discovered in 1803 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger but there was no use for it until 1875 when William Hillebrand and Thomas Norton were able to get pure cerium itself, by passing an electric current through cerium chloride. Cerium became the first rare earth element to have a proper application which was lighter flint, and incandescent mantles for gas lamps. These became a reason to mine rare earth elements even though cerium was the known one at the moment. It is very important to know that our relationship with rare earth is very intimate as it is needed in everyday life and almost every technology. How will something that is rare be very useful? To answer this, rare earth elements are not rare, they are as abundant as tin or any other abundant element in the world. The difference is that they are not found in high concentrations in most regions. While rare earth is found easily, refining them is very difficult as the current way of processing causes a lot of carbon waste and could also cause radioactive wastes which cause environmental change.
While Rare Earth Elements cause waste, there are a lot of practices that are looking into solving the problem, these include recycling old electronics, gadgets, and materials to get the Rare earth metals in them, which will help a lot to save the earth. The solvent extraction technique is being researched and used in certain countries to separate rare earth metals from other metals in recycled materials. A lot of research is being done to extract and process rare earth metals, seeing that the elements are currently part of our lives and will be part of our future.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169136820300937
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987119300258
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0016703779900978
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/638/1/uk_bl_ethos_432307.pdf