Rare Earths elements are composed of 15 chemical elements in the periodic table. Scandium and yttrium have similar properties, with mineral assemblages, and are therefore referred alike in the literature. Although abundant in the planet surface, the Rare Earths are not found in concentrated forms, thus making them economically valued as they are so challenging to obtain. Rare Earths Industry: Technological, Economic and Environmental Implications provides an interdisciplinary orientation to the topic of Rare Earths with a focus on technical, scientific, academic, economic, and environmental issues. Part I of book deals with the Rare Earths Reserves and Mining, Part II focuses on Rare Earths Processes and High-Tech Product Development, and Part III deals with Rare Earths Recycling Opportunities and Challenges. The chapters provide updated information and priceless analysis of the theme, and they seek to present the latest techniques, approaches, processes and technologies that can reduce the costs of compliance with environmental concerns in a way it is possible to anticipate and mitigate emerging problems. - Discusses the influence of policy on Rare Earth Elements to help raise interest in developing strategies for management resource development and exploitation - Global contributions will address solutions in countries that are high RE producers, including China, Brazil, Australia, and South China - End of chapter critical summaries outline the technological, economic and environmental implications of rare earths reserves, exploration and market - Provides a concise, but meaningful, geopolitical analysis of the current worldwide scenario and importance of rare earths exploration for governments, corporate groups, and local stakeholders

This book presents the current status and future prospects of rare earth elements with respect to a multitude of factors, including resource availability, production, and applications. Among the topics covered are the extraction of raw materials, alloying and compound production, applications, resource conservation through recycling, regulatory issues, and potential new resource streams. The chapters are authored by well-known technical experts in their fields, with decades of research, industrial, and governmental policy experience. The book is expected to serve as the first single source reference on rare earth minerals and metals aimed at students, scientists, technologists, government legislators, regulatory agencies, investors, and business leaders. It provides in-depth examination of the importance of rare earth elements to the global economy and their use in technological innovation, including energy, power, transportation, medicine, electronics, and chemical/petroleum industries.

The contributors argue that rare earths are essential to the information technology revolution on which humans have come to depend for communication, commerce, and, increasingly, engage in conflict. They demonstrate that rare earths are a strategic commodity over which political actors will and do struggle for control.

The Rare Earths Era: Strategic Metals Dependency & World Order addresses the centrality of 17 rare metallic elements necessary to the manufacture of a vast panoply of products developed through modern technology and in use worldwide—from smartphones, televisions, computers, and medical scanners to components of the most modern weapons systems in Western arsenals. Rare earths are hence crucial to strategic planning, whether for business, combating climate change, warfare, or ascendancy in world order. Called “rare earths” because of the low concentration in which they are found, which makes their extraction polluting and difficult, the miraculous properties of these elements can endow other materials with an unalterable super magnetism, an amazing hardness or robustness, a unique luminescence or fluorescence, and a special conductivity. The world as we now experience, enjoy and understand it is absolutely dependent on access to these metals in order to produce today’s technology. Without that, it’s goodbye to modernity. Rare earths may be key to understanding some of the most pressing geopolitical issues of our time. This book addresses the following questions: * How did the world become so dependent and addicted to Chinese rare earth metals? * Will critical minerals provide China with geopolitical leverage? * How will the global needs for rare earths impact the transition to clean energy? * What is the environmental impact of rare earths? * What is the role of the strategic minerals in the de-dollarization process? * Will we see new wars over rare earths resources? * Are critical minerals really on the radar of Western politicians?

The industrialisation of China prompted the biggest commodity boom of modern times. Soaring prices gave rise to talk of a commodity super cycle and induced a wave of resource nationalism. The author, who was chief economist at two of the world's largest mining companies, describes how this resulted in a transformation of the global mining industry.

Rare Earth Elements are a group of 17 metals which have a central role in modern industry, increasingly used in the fields of green technologies, high technological consumer goods, industrial and medical appliances and modern weapons systems. Although deposits of Rare Earths are globally dispersed, over 90% of global demand has been provided by Chinese mines since the late 1990s, leading to a situation where China has a virtual monopoly. This book surveys the Rare Earths mining industry, discusses the extent to which Rare Earths really are scarce elsewhere in the world and assesses the economics of production, considering arguments for the rationing of supply, for higher pricing and for a total export embargo. This actually occurred in 2010, demonstrating the vulnerability of the rest of the world to China’s control of these increasingly vital resources.

This publication presents a selection of papers discussed at the OECD Workshop on Raw Materials, held in Paris in October 2009. This workshop was organised in response to the growing concern on the use of export restrictions on raw materials, particularly by emerging economies.

The world is moving towards replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. But building electric vehicles, solar panels, and millions of other devices requires digging more mines. Critical minerals are vital to many sustainable technologies, and the competition for them is intensifying. Nations which aspire to energy independence are ever more intertwined: a hedge fund manager's attempt to revive rare earths mining in California needs Chinese expertise, and international reliance on Africa's mining sector persists despite concern over child labour. Meanwhile, ecological dilemmas abound: a proposed lithium mine in Nevada would help global car manufacturers slash their dependence on fossil fuels, but developing that mine could cause the extinction of a flower found nowhere else on the planet. As investors attempt to predict how the geopolitics of resource extraction will unfold, this is a story of the industry giants, researchers, and policymakers at the forefront of the new energy wars.