Rare Earth elementsChina's dominance in rare Earth elements to weaken

Published 23 December 2010

China currently has a lock on the rare Earth elements market: in 2009 it provided 95 percent of the world’s supply, or 120,000 tons; other countries used to produce rare Earth elements, but environmental and economic considerations led to the near death of the industry outside of China; the growing unease with China’s dominance — and its willingness to exploit this dominance for political gain — have led to a renewed interest in reopening abandoned mines; U.S. company Molycorp has just secured the permits and funding to restart production at a mine in Mountain Pass, California, which would become the first U.S. source of rare Earth elements in more than a decade; full operations will start by the end of next year; by 2012, the revamped U.S. mine is expected to produce around 20,000 tons of rare Earth materials per year

Molycorp has secured the permits and funding needed to restart production at a mine in Mountain Pass, California, which would become the first U.S. source of rare Earth elements in more than a decade. The mine is one of the world’s richest deposits of these elements, which are critical for making components found in a wide range of technologies. On Tuesday, the company announced that it will partner with Hitachi Metals of Japan to turn materials from the mine into high-strength magnets, which are vital in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and many other products.

China currently has a lock on the market for rare Earth materials: in 2009 it provided 95 percent of the world’s supply, or 120,000 tons. This concentration of supply has become a major issue in recent months, particularly after China temporarily blocked exports of these materials to Japan in

September. A Critical Materials Strategy document issued by the U.S. Department of Energy last week points to the “risk of supply disruption” in the short term (“Rare Earth elements in U.S. not so rare: report,” 19 November 2010 HSNW). Worldwide demand for rare Earth elements was 125,000 tons in 2010 and is expected to rise to 225,000 tons by 2015.

Technology Review reports that the mine is a 50-acre open pit about fifty miles outside Las Vegas, surrounded by a stark landscape of red-brown mountains, Joshua trees, and the occasional cactus. Molycorp has begun draining groundwater that seeps into the bottom of the pit and removing areas of rock called “overburden” to expose a layer of bastnäsite, a mineral rich in rare Earth elements. Expansion of operations will push the mine from a depth of 500 feet to 1,000 feet in the coming years.

By 2012, the revamped U.S. mine is expected to produce around 20,000 tons of rare Earth materials per year. Molycorp plans to use new processing techniques that it claims are more environmentally friendly and less expensive than conventional methods.

TR notes that the Mountain Pass mine used to be the world’s biggest supplier of rare Earth elements, but it closed in 2004, after a 1998 wastewater leak and the arrival of Chinese suppliers that offered lower prices (one reason for the lower prices is that nearly half the rare earths produced in China are made as a by-product of iron mining).

Molycorp expects to sell about 3,000 tons of rare