Blog: You, us, everyone

Rare earths elements are critical to the success of technology and in the extension to the energy transition. REE are present in large variety in our day-to-day applications, be it Smartphones, PCs, EV, Batteries, defence systems, and many more.

Today’s demand is very strongly centered around magnetic metals with the end-usage in synchronous motors. The yearly growth demand is expected to exceed 14% (annually) with the market volume to reach about $ 10 billion by 2026.

While REE deposits are quite common across the globe, China is by far the world’s larges refiner. The country’s quasi monopoly on the rare earths refining has led other nations such as the US, Europe, Canada and Australia to incentivize rare earths industry, in particular the refining. Refining of REE outside outside of China is to reorganize the supply chains for numerous industries, but in particular for the semiconductor industry, the battery industry, and many others.

As of today, about 75% of the processing facilities are in China. It is therefore only understandable that the US is at the forefront in the race to secure a stable supply of REE from regions that are close to US interest. While the US has some large deposits, it is lacking, like all other developed market countries, processing facilities. The issue with processing facilities is that during the refining process, radioactive elements are released into the air, soil, and water. The retention of the radioactive elements is highly complex and not always successful.  Therefore, areas around the REE processing facilities show oftentimes above average pollution levels. The world’s major REE deposits are in Latin America, Australia, and North America.

The list of key players in the REE business include:

• MP Materials – MP
• Energy Fuels – EFR
• NioCorp Developments – NB
• Aclara Resources – AKA
• Ucore Rate Metals – UCU
• Lynas Rare Earths – LYC
• Iluka Resources – ILU
• Arafura Resource - ARU