What are rare earths?

Rare earths are important resources, but they can cause significant damage.

rare Lands

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Do you know what rare earths are? No, we are not talking about deserted beaches or uninhabited places. Rare earths are chemical substances used in industry to produce various items. Although they are plentiful, rare earths, or rare earth metals, receive this name because they are difficult to extract. Soft, malleable, ductile and color ranging from dark gray to silver, rare earths are composed of 17 chemical elements, including scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y) and 15 lanthanides: lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb) and lutetium (Lu).

Its chemical and physical properties are used in a wide variety of technological applications and are incorporated in superconductors, magnets, catalysts, among others. These substances were also used extensively in cathode ray tubes for televisions and computers.

Most of the rare earths are extracted by China, the world's largest exporter of these elements. But due to the decrease in the quantity of exports of rare earths by the Asian country, other countries like Brazil and Germany started to dedicate themselves to rare earth mining.

Recycling

With the limited number of economically viable places to mine rare earths and also because of the smaller amount exported by China, recycling has become necessary for the availability of the element around the world. However, according to estimates, a tiny part of the elements that make up the group of rare earths are recycled, despite the fact that most substances have the possibility of being recovered.

The problem is that the rare earth recycling process is complicated, because after collecting the material, it must go through a chemical separation process. Then, the chemical elements must be purified and, in the case of oxides, must be combined with other products to be reused.

  • Recycling: what is it and why is it important

the dangers attached

Due to the common presence of thorium (Th) and uranium (U) in rare earth ores, it becomes a danger to mine, refine and recycle this type of substance, as they are radioactive elements. Furthermore, in the refinement method toxic acids are needed - and any misuse or leakage of these acids can cause great environmental damage.

In 2011, the Bukit Merah mine in Malaysia was blamed for causing birth defects and leukemia in residents of a city of eleven thousand. Mitsubishi, which operated the mine until 1992, had to spend $100 million to clean up the site.

Brazil and the Rare Earths

Since China began to reduce its extraction and become more rigid with mining and exporting rare earths, many countries have started to look for sources within their territories. Brazil was no exception and has widely discussed this possibility.



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