General Description

Rare earth elements include yttrium, lanthanum and 13 lanthanide elements: cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, tulium, ytterbium, lutetium. All of them are connected by the kinship of properties and usually are adjacent in deposits. They are conventionally divided into 2 groups: the cerium group, from lanthanum to neodymium, and the yttrium group, from yttrium itself and the lanthanides from samarium to lutetium. Yttrium group is divided into 3 subgroups: yttrium itself, medium rare earth elements (from samarium to erbium) and heavy rare earth elements (from thulium to lutetium).

Geology

Rare earth elements are dispersed in the Earth's crust in minuscule concentrations, little suitable for mining. Bastnaesite (_CeCO3 F) and monazite (_CePO4) are considered the main mining concentrators of REEs. These ores account for 70% of REE production. The richest REE deposits are considered to be bastnaesite of the PRC and the United States, monazite of Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the USA.
30% of REE reserves are concentrated in the deposits of xenotime, ionic-absorbing clays, loparite, apatites, phosphorites, secondary monazite, eudialyte, etc. About 50 % of REE reserves are in bastnaesite ores from two deposits: Bayun Obo (China) and Mountain Pass (the USA), where yttrium reserves are estimated from 0.5 to 1 million t.

Use

All rare earth elements and their derivatives are valuable combination of rare properties, allowing their use at the forefront of modern science and technology. Without them, modern radioelectronics and petrochemical industry, ceramics and glass industry, metallurgy and mechanical engineering. About 30% of REE mined in the world is used to produce catalysts for oil cracking, polymer synthesis, as well as catalytic filters that neutralize exhaust gases. It is logical that the global demand for such filters for automobiles is growing at a fast pace. Neodymium and dysprosium are the most popular REEs, and they are used in permanent magnets (_{Nd2 Fe14} B), whose production is also growing steadily.

Luminophores

Particularly promising, in terms of profitability, is the use of REE in the production of phosphors. This is the largest market sector for europium, yttrium and terbium, which are indispensable in TV sets, computer monitors, and fluorescent lamps. Here too, demand for REEs will grow for the foreseeable future.

Polishing pastes.

Cerium compounds are used to make such pastes for mirrors, lenses, and electron beam tubes. A new direction is mechanochemical polishing of chips using cerium compound powder. The demand for such powders is increasing every year by more than 50%.

Electrical Engineering

REE is a material without any alternative in production of industrial electro-technical and electronic ceramics, demand for which is also growing every year in industrially developed countries. Ceramic filters, dielectric resonators and multilayer capacitors, which are indispensable in telecommunications networks, will be produced at an ever-increasing rate. A new area of REE application is nickel-michemetal hydride batteries. They successfully compete with Li-ion batteries in terms of volumetric charge density.

Buy, price

Evek GmbH sells rare earth metals at the best price. It is formed taking into account the rates on the London Non-Ferrous Exchange and depends on the technological features of production without including additional costs. With us you can buy in bulk the necessary products for large-scale production. A wide range of products, comprehensive advice of managers, reasonable prices and timely delivery determine the face of our company. Wholesalers get discounts.