Rare earth minerals

Extracted Attributes

• Type

  Mineral group

• Categories

  Light Rare Earths (lanthanum to samarium) and Heavy Rare Earths (europium to lutetium).

• Composition

  Solids composed of various inorganic elements, containing one or more rare-earth elements as major metal constituents.

• Elements Included

  A group of 17 chemical elements: scandium, yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides (lanthanum to lutetium).

• Key Economic Ores

  Bastnäsite, Monazite, Loparite, and lateritic ion-adsorption clays.

• Reason for 'Rarity'

  Unique geochemical properties prevent rare earth elements from easily forming minerals and concentrating in deposits large enough for mining, despite their relative abundance in the Earth's crust.

• Geological Occurrence

  Typically found in association with alkaline to peralkaline igneous magmas, often within pegmatites or carbonatite intrusives. Perovskite mineral phases are common hosts. Mantle-derived carbonate melts and hydrothermal deposits also carry them.

• First Discovered Mineral

  Gadolinite

• First Discovery Location

  Ytterby, Sweden

• Crustal Abundance (Cerium)

  25th most abundant element of 78 common elements in Earth's crust at 60 parts per million.

• Crustal Abundance (Thulium and Lutetium)

  Least abundant rare-earth elements at about 0.5 part per million.

Timeline

• Gadolinite, the first rare-earth mineral, was discovered in a mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. (Source: web_search_results)

  1787-XX-XX

Rare-earth mineral

A rare-earth mineral contains one or more rare-earth elements as major metal constituents. Rare-earth minerals are usually found in association with alkaline to peralkaline igneous magmas in pegmatites or with carbonatite intrusives. Perovskite mineral phases are common hosts to rare-earth elements within the alkaline complexes. Minerals are solids composed of various inorganic elements, mixed through processes such as evaporation, pressure or other physical changes. Rare earth minerals are rare because rare earth elements have unique geochemical properties that prevent them from easily forming minerals, and are therefore not normally found in deposits large or concentrated enough for mining. This is the reason they are called "rare" earths. These elements have a wide range of uses from every day items to military technologies. The minerals that do exist are often associated with alkaline magmas or with carbonatite intrusives. Perovskite mineral phases are common hosts to rare-earth elements within the alkaline complexes. Mantle-derived carbonate melts are also carriers of rare earths. Hydrothermal deposits associated with alkaline magmatism contain a variety of rare-earth minerals. The following list includes the more common hydrothermal minerals that often contain significant rare earth elements:

Web Search Results

• Rare-earth element - Wikipedia

  The principal sources of rare-earth elements are the minerals bastnäsite (RCO 3 F, where R is a mixture of rare-earth elements), monazite (XPO 4, where X is a mixture of rare-earth elements and sometimes thorium), and loparite ((Ce,Na,Ca)(Ti,Nb)O 3), and the lateritic ion-adsorption clays. Despite their high relative abundance, rare-earth minerals are more difficult to mine and extract than equivalent sources of transition metals, due in part to their similar chemical properties, making the [...] Because of their geochemical properties, rare-earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated in rare-earth minerals. Consequently, economically exploitable ore deposits are sparse.( The first rare-earth mineral discovered (1787) was gadolinite, a black mineral composed of cerium, yttrium, iron, silicon, and other elements. This mineral was extracted from a mine in the village of Ytterby in Sweden. Four of the rare-earth elements bear names derived from this single [...] Well-known minerals containing cerium, and other LREE, include bastnäsite, monazite, allanite, loparite, ancylite, parisite, lanthanite, chevkinite, cerite, stillwellite, britholite, fluocerite, and cerianite. Monazite (marine sands from Brazil, India, or Australia; rock from South Africa), bastnäsite (from Mountain Pass rare earth mine, or several localities in China), and loparite (Kola Peninsula, Russia) have been the principal ores of cerium and the light lanthanides.(

• Rare Earths Statistics and Information | U.S. Geological Survey

  The principal economic sources of rare earths are the minerals bastnasite, monazite, and loparite and the lateritic ion-adsorption clays. The rare earths are a relatively abundant group of 17 elements composed of scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides. The elements range in crustal abundance from cerium, the 25th most abundant element of the 78 common elements in the Earth's crust at 60 parts per million, to thulium and lutetium, the least abundant rare-earth elements at about 0.5 part per [...] National Minerals Information Center Home Commodities Countries Materials Flow US States NMIC Seminars Data Science Maps Multimedia Publications Web Tools Software News Connect Partners About Statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of the mineral commodity group _rare earths -scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides_ [...] Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5070–L Earth Mapping Resources Initiative(Earth MRI) -Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals—Rare earth elements Factors That Influence the Price of Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Rare Earth Elements, and Zn Open-File Report 2008-1356 Global Rare Earth Oxide (REO) Production Trends(PDF) Coastal Deposits of Heavy mineral Sands; Global Significance and U.S. Resources

• Rare earth elements: A review of applications, occurrence ...

  In nature, REE do not exist as individual native metals such as gold, copper and silver because of their reactivity, instead occur together in numerous ore/accessory minerals as either minor or major constituents. Though REE are found in a wide range of minerals, including silicates, carbonates, oxides and phosphates, they do not fit into most mineral structures and can only be found in a few geological environments. The principal economic sources of REE minerals are bastnaesite, monazite, and [...] that carries notable concentrations of REE. The deposit contains ≥5.5% REO (rare earth oxides) and they are hosted in carbonatite dikes of about 10 cm wide (Wall and Mariano, 1996). LREE minerals such as bastnäsite, parisite, and synchysite have been reported from the Amba Dongar carbonatite complex, Gujarat (Doroshkevich et al., 2009). By using geological mapping and grid channel geochemical sampling methods, Bhushan and Kumar (2013) discovered carbonatite plugs, sills and dykes hosting REE [...] Rare-earth elements (hereinafter referred to as REE) are a group of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, in particular the fifteen lanthanides as well as yttrium and scandium as defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Scandium and yttrium are considered REE since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and exhibit similar chemical properties. All REE occur in nature but not in pure metal form, although Promethium, the

• What are rare earths?

  Rare earths are a group of 15 elements in the periodic table known as the Lanthanide series. Rare earths are categorised into Light Rare Earths (lanthanum to samarium) and Heavy Rare Earths (europium to lutetium). They are key enablers for technologies looking to lower emissions, reduce energy consumption, as well as improve efficiency, performance, speed, durability, and thermal stability. They are also a key component in technologies that seek to make products lighter and smaller. [...] Rare earth elements are relatively plentiful in the earth’s crust, however, because of their geochemical properties, rare earth elements are typically dispersed. This means they are not often found in concentration to make them viable to mine. It was the scarcity of these minerals that led to them being called rare earths. [...] 1. A single smartphone contains approx. 8 different rare earth materials. 2. Rare Earth Elements are not rare in the earth’s crust – but they’re rarely found in commercial concentrations as they are in the Mt Weld deposit. 3. Rare earths make cars greener – Cerium (Ce) is used in catalytic converters to reduce exhaust gas pollution. 4. Neodymium (Nd) is the strongest known magnetic substance. 5. Many MRI machines use Neodymium (Nd) magnets.

• Potential Uses of Rare Earth Elements Found in Marine Minerals

  Rare earth elements (REEs) and rare metals are key ingredients for glass, lights, magnets, batteries, and catalytic converters, and used in everything from cell phones to cars. For example, to make the magnet for one wind turbine, you need about 300 kilograms of neodymium. Wind turbines also contain significant amounts of dysprosium, praseodymium, samarium, cobalt, and rhenium. REEs listed by element name,its ymbol,and selected applications Scandium Sc