U.S. Department of Agriculture / Peggy Greb
- The trade war between the US and China continues to escalate.
- Last week, the Chinese government hinted that it’s considering restricting its export of rare-earth minerals: a set of 17 metals that are hard to find and difficult to extract.
- China controls a lion’s share of the planet’s rare-earth materials, which are integral to satellites, smart phones, missiles and more.
- There are good reasons for China not to restrict rare-earth exports, but if the country chooses to do so, it could create a major challenge for tech companies like Apple and even the US Department of Defense.
- Visit Businessinsider.com for more stories.
Electric car motors, iPhones, military jet engines, batteries, and satellites all have something in common: They require rare-earth elements to function.
Rare-earth elements are a group of 17 metals that — as their name suggests — form under the Earth’s surface and are difficult to find and extract.
But they are crucial to the tech and defense industries; rare-earth metals have unique magnetic, heat-resistant, and phosphorescent properties that no other elements have. This means that they’re often non-substitutable materials in smartphone and missile production.
China controls the lion’s share of mineable rare-earth deposits. On average, the country has accounted for more than 90% of the global production and supply of these metals during the past decade, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Mining and refining these materials isn’t easy, and very few countries can compete with China’s monopoly on the rare-earth market. According to Bloomberg, the US relies on China for 80% of its rare-earth imports.
That puts China in a powerful position: If its leaders choose to restrict rare-earth exports to the US — something president Xi Jinping recently hinted could happen — that could temporarily cripple companies like Apple and Lockheed Martin.
Read More: China drops heavy hint it is about to pull the trigger on its most powerful weapon in the trade war
Even the US Department of Defense (DoD) relies on rare-earth elements for manufacturing. And the US Department of the Interior listed the minerals as "critical" to the country’s economic and national security.
Here are 16 facts about how these highly-coveted materials are mined and refined, and why a possible trade restriction could hurt US tech and defense companies.
The 15 lanthanides found in the second row up from the bottom of the periodic table (with atomic numbers 57 to 71) are rare-earth elements. The other two are scandium and yttrium.
REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
Though rare-earth elements are used in trace amounts, their unique magnetic, heat-resistant, and phosphorescent qualities make them essential in the production of products like batteries, car engines, and LCD TV displays.
Rare-earths can interact with other elements to form materials with properties that neither element could offer on its own. For example, when combined with iron and boron, the rare-earth neodymium helps create one of the strongest magnets on the market, which is useful in iPhones and hard drives.
Rare-earth elements are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, according to the USGS, but are widely dispersed. Because of that, it’s rare to find a substantial quantity of the elements clumped together in an extractable way.
REUTERS/David Gray
Thulium and lutetium are two of the least common rare-earth elements, but their average abundance in the Earth’s crust is still nearly 200 times greater than that of gold, according to the USGS.
Still, there are only a few viable areas on the planet where rare-earth elements can be mined and refined, and they’re expensive to extract (and therefore to purchase). Building a rare-earth mine can cost up to a $500 million, according to the Wyoming Mining Association.
According to The Conversation, Europium — the rare-earth used in computer monitors and TV screens — cost about $712,000 per metric ton.
Rare-earth elements can be formed by volcanic activity, but many were first created in supernova explosions at the dawn of the universe, before Earth existed.
Reuters/David Gray
When the Earth formed, the minerals were incorporated into the deepest portions of the mantle.
As tectonic activity has moved portions of the mantle around, rare-earth minerals have found their way closer to the surface. The process of weathering — in which rocks break down into sediment over millions of years — spread these rare minerals all over the planet.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – awoodward@businessinsider.com (Aylin Woodward)