80% of rare earths are imported from China, but now the United States has begun to mine independently. What's going on?
Release time：2023-02-07 05:18:13 source：korpimaankyynel.com author：Shao Mo environment
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80% of rare earths are imported from China, but now the United States has begun to mine independently. What's going on?
The United States suddenly mines its own rare earths. This is the first time. Who would have thought that the world's largest importer of rare earths would switch to mining its own rare earths. We often see rare earth minerals, rare earth elements, and rare earth resources on the news, but our understanding of rare earths is still very limited. This is not ordinary soil, so what kind of treasure is rare earth, so many countries are fighting for it? What happened to allow the United States to independently mine its own domestic rare earth mines? Rare Earth Ore
Rare Earth
Rare earth element is not one kind, but a series. It is a general term for scandium, yttrium and lanthanide elements, and there are 17 kinds in total. . Rare earth minerals are often referred to as ores containing rare earth elements. There are 250 kinds in nature. Rare earths are so called because they were very rare when they were first discovered in the 18th century. And limited by the conditions at the time, only their water-insoluble oxides can be obtained. Historically, chemists called these oxides "earth", so they were called rare earths. Rare Earth Elements To obtain rare earth elements, it is not enough to find rare earth ore, these elements exist in the ore in various forms of compounds. To obtain the desired rare earth elements, the ore must be smelted, and then purified and separated step by step through various methods such as ion separation, extraction, and electrolysis. This also makes pure rare earth elements much more expensive than rare earth minerals, because to obtain the desired rare earth elements and rare earth compounds, many processes must be experienced. Rare earths play an important role in many fields. The first use of rare earth elements is in the military. Rare Earth Industry Chain With the advent of modern military, traditional military materials such as aluminum alloys, titanium alloys and magnesium alloys have been unable to meet the growing military demand. As a result, engineers tried to apply rare earth materials to the military, changing some of the original material properties and improving the combat effectiveness of weapons. In addition to the military, rare earths have also entered the oil industry, such as molecular sieve catalysts made of rare earths. Compared with the past aluminum silicate catalysts, rare earth catalysts have higher activity, and can effectively avoid heavy metal poisoning. The cracking effect of petroleum is very good. The petroleum industry also needs rare earths. In the rubber industry, which we think has nothing to do with metals, rare earths can also have a place. For example, when synthesizing cis-butadiene rubber, using rare earth naphthenate-triisobutylaluminum as a catalyst can shorten the process. Rare earths are also used in various glass-ceramic materials, producing new materials such as conductive ceramics and superconducting ceramics, which play a great role in electronics. It is no exaggeration to say that rare earths are more precious resources than gold. Rare earth elements exist on the earth in the form of minerals, which, like the water resources on the earth, are unevenly distributed. The distribution of rare earths in the worldmy country's rare earths
In terms of rare earths, my country is a favored country, accounting for 71.1% of the world's total rare earths, but my country did not do well in the beginning Cherish rare earths. Since 1996, my country has entered a crazy period of rare earth mining. By 2009, the accumulated rare earths mined in my country accounted for 37% of the world's total rare earths, which is equivalent to more than half of our own rare earth reserves directly mined. my country not only mines a lot, but also sells rare earths at a cheap price, and sometimes the price is even lower than that of pork. Coupled with the lack of strict supervision of rare earth mining in my country in the early days, many private mining and low-selling rare earth phenomena occurred. Rare earth mining sites As of 2016, my country's rare earth resources only accounted for 23% of the world's total, and the reserves of that year have long since disappeared. If this mining speed is not curbed, by 2040, my country will have no rare earth resources to mine and can only import it. someone else's rare earth. More importantly, for the mining of rare earths, we waste and pollute a lot of land, resulting in a large amount of heavy metal elements in the water in some areas. The land after mining basically cannot be reused, and can only become wasteland or polluted land. In order to protect my country's precious resources, my country promulgated a white paper on the rare earth industry in 2012. my country undertakes 90% of the world's rare earth exports. If such exports continue, my country will lose all rare earths. my country used to sell rare earth mines at cabbage prices. Although my country exported a lot of rare earth resources, its domestic rare earth industry was relatively weak. Most of the raw materials flowed into Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. They separated and purified them and sold them to us at high prices. When the private mining of rare earths was completely banned in 2013, my country had already lost two-thirds of its rare earth resources. The country that imports the most rare earth resources from China is the United States, and 80% of their rare earth resources depend on China's exports. The United States itself contains 10% of the world's rare earths, and according to their demand, these rare earths will be mined in a few minutes. Moreover, the cost of mining rare earths in the United States is the highest in the world. What makes Americans who are keen on profit dig their own rare earths? The United States has also begun to mine its own rare earthsAmerica's rare earth road
The main reason for the United States to mine its own rare earths is that China has begun to reduce its own rare earth exports year by year, This is a bolt from the blue for the United States, which is extremely dependent on imports. Since China has almost occupied the rare earth export market before, after reducing exports, the next major exporter of rare earths cannot be found for a while. On the one hand, there is huge demand in its own country, and on the other hand, major rare earth countries reduce their export volume. As a last resort, the United States can only bite the bullet and mine its own rare earths. The world's rare earth production has plummeted. It is not a simple matter for the United States to independently mine rare earths. First of all, the cost of mining is very expensive, such as workers and equipment maintenance. Secondly, the rare earth processing technology in the United States is very mature, but the rare earth mining technology may not catch up with China, which has been mining rare earths for more than 20 years. After planning for a long time, only one rare earth plant in the United States has been put into production, and the output is not high, not to mention the efficiency. Finally, the mining of rare earths in the United States will cause pollution. Their domestic environmentalists have complained several times, and the country is also full of voices to stop mining. Not only the United States, but other importing countries of rare earths, such as Japan and South Korea, are also facing the same situation. One gram of rare earth resources is hard to find Japan invested 200 million yen to try to solve the domestic shortage of rare earths. They found Mongolia and hoped to establish a new rare earth import and export trade. At the same time, Japan frantically searched for rare earth resources in the country. South Korea has invested 15 million US dollars and plans to store 1,200 tons of rare earths so that it can meet the needs of its own domestic industry. It is conceivable that in the past, my country has undertaken the world's rare earth exports, and a slowdown has left a group of countries at a loss. my country is also preparing to transform on the road of rare earth, from the original simple export of rare earth mines to the independent processing and purification of mines, so that the price of rare earths in the international market can be increased, and we should not sell mines directly at the price of cabbage. The most important thing about rare earth mining pits is that my country's industry has also begun to improve, and the number of places where rare earths are used has begun to increase. my country has decided to use the remaining rare earths more in its own country. In addition to China, India, Australia and Russia also have a large content, and the United States can actually import from these countries. However, Australia's rare earths are expensive, India's mining is lagging behind, and Russia's relationship is difficult to manage. It can be said that the rare earth problem facing the United States is quite serious. my country reduces the export of rare earth resourcesThe future of rare earth
There is such a law in the periodic table of elements, the higher the atomic number of the element, the higher its content in the universe. The less, the more applicable this law is on Earth. There are 17 kinds of rare earth elements, and the serial numbers are not small, especially the lanthanide elements. Therefore, every time we use a little rare earth element, its amount on the earth will decrease. Some people will be curious that it is used by humans in other places, which is equivalent to being on the earth, but not in the crust. Rare earth elements can’t say the same thing. Rare earths used by humans cannot return to the earth’s crust. Only when humans abandon these rare earth products in the wild, they will return to the earth’s rock formations again after hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of years of chemical reactions. . This is like the previous generation has used it up, and the next generation can no longer mine it. This is what people often say "kill the chicken to get the egg". This is true of rare earth resources, and so is fossil energy. The mining of rare earths also involves the use of a lot of energy. It can be said that in those years of crazy mining in my country, the losses were too great. Rare earth transformation can not only develop my country's entire rare earth industry, but also protect our country's rare earth resources in disguised form. The transformation of my country's rare earths In the future, we will see our own products made of our own rare earths in many domestic weapons, electronic products and aerospace equipment.- Last：5 super small countries in Europe
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