Rare Earth Elements
What are Rare Earth Elements?
The rare earth elements comprise 17 different chemical elements with unique properties in the periodic system: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.
Technically, rare earth elements are relatively plentiful, but there are few deposits with the necessary grade and purity that makes it viable to extract them.
What are they used for?
Rare earth elements are used for a number of applications. Many of these applications are critical to the continued growth of green energy, for instance in electric vehicles, wind turbines, batteries and fuel cells.
Two elements found in the Fen field are particularly important to REE Minerals: Neodymium and praseodymium. These are widely used to make high-power magnets, a key ingredient in the development of renewable energy.
Rare earth elements are also found in a wide range of other products, from catalysts to fiber optics and medical imaging.
Geopolitical backdrop
The vast majority of the current extraction and processing of rare earth elements occurs in China. Increasingly, this has become a point of geopolitical tension, heightened by export restrictions.
This has caused concern in both Europe and the United States, with both outlining strategies to build supply chains that are independent of China, including both extraction and processing of rare earth elements.