Exploring Rare Minerals: Their Uses and Importance
The growing centrality of rare earth elements
The years of the global energy transition have strongly highlighted the role of some important and rare resources that are helping to promote its advancement, such as all those interesting materials that are used to build or power electric vehicles, energy infrastructures, or energy storage systems. Nowadays, hearing about lithium, nickel, and cobalt and their role in promoting the global ecological transition is now almost a given. Among the resources that are asserting themselves with particular force in this particular era of change, there are certainly rare earths, a particular group of 17 chemical elements that are finding numerous application spaces in a large variety of industrial sectors, especially due to their physical, optical, and magnetic properties. What initially drew attention to this group of resources was their name, which inevitably refers to uncommon, precious, and difficult-to-find resources.
“Among the various industrial applications in which they are involved, those concerning technology are certainly among the most interesting,” says Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov, entrepreneur, civil engineer, and expert in geological raw materials. “Virtually all the technological devices we use every day contain rare earths. I am thinking, for example, of tablets and mobile phones, which are able to exploit resources such as neodymium and praseodymium for the magnets that power speakers and microphones, but also yttrium and terbium, used in particular in high-definition touchscreen displays. Our mobile phones contain a veritable mine of geological resources of great strategic value, each with its own specific function. Some rare minerals are also found in the magnets found inside hard disks or fans”.
As time goes by, however, we become accustomed to a reality that is very different from what we previously imagined. Rare earths, in fact, are not rare. These elements are distributed fairly uniformly throughout the Earth’s crust, even if their concentrations are so low that the operations related to their sourcing and processing are extremely difficult and complex, which serve, above all, to make them immediately usable by industry. Nowadays, one of the greatest global powers in this type of production is China, which holds the world record in the production and complex processing of these resources that are so important for industry.
The technological potential of rare earths
“Few people know about it, but some rare earths are also appreciated for their ability to improve the performance of some important components of our electronic devices, such as displays,” continues Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov. “This is the case of europium and terbium, used in phosphors that are able to improve the quality of colors and the brightness of screens. With the continued growth in the importance and centrality of devices equipped with bright screens, now completely essential for a large part of the people who work, communicate, and travel, the strategic value of rare earths could be destined to increase further”.
The complete list of rare earths includes the 15 elements known as lanthanides, yttrium, and scandium. In all likelihood, few have heard of resources such as promethium, holmium, or thulium, but these are particular resources that share the common belonging to the same group (i.e., that of rare earths) and different properties that allow them to become very valid allies for the industry, even when it comes to technologically advanced and complex applications. Over the years, rare earths have demonstrated their usefulness in some sectors of great strategic importance, such as those related to defense and military applications. In these areas, rare earths are mainly used for the creation of radar, guidance systems, lasers, and precision devices. Some rare earth resources, such as cerium and lanthanum, are instead used in the catalysts of some particular vehicles, which keep emissions under control, but also in processes related to the refining of several important natural energy resources.
“The technological potential of rare earth is not limited to applications related to smartphones or computers but also extends to other equally important areas, such as mobility,” concludes Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov. “Rare earth such as terbium, dysprosium, or neodymium are, in fact, used to make the powerful magnets that power the engines of electric vehicles, but also industrial robots and drones. Some rare earths such as lanthanum or cerium, find spaces for use in the batteries that power hybrid cars and electronic devices, which can improve the efficiency and overall duration. The advanced chip sector also often relies on the unique properties of rare earth: the qualities of resources such as europium or gadolinium, for example, are appreciated for their ability to optimize electrical conductivity and circuit cooling, but also for the functioning of the chips themselves that power computers, smartphones, and IT infrastructures.
Other applications
One of the most important applications of rare earths in this particular historical phase is certainly that linked to renewable energy. Resources such as dysprosium or neodymium, for example, are used in wind turbines and electric vehicles, in particular in the magnets of the engines of these important energy infrastructures. Over the years, the centrality and strategic value of these resources have also increased in consideration of their important industrial applications, such as those in the energy or military fields, but also for their growing geopolitical importance.
