Cui Rongguo
World production of rare earth mineral products in 2005 was 250,000t, up 15% year-on-year. The world consumption of rare earth minerals was 100,000t, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%, with the supply far exceeding the demand. The main consumer countries are China, Japan, the United States and so on. It is predicted that the demand for rare earths in electronics, magnets, glass and ceramics, and industries related to consumer electronics will increase in the next few years, with an average annual growth rate of up to 3.2%.
I, reserves and resources
Known rare earth-containing minerals are about 200 kinds of minerals, but has been mined and utilized only about 10 kinds of light rare earth minerals are mainly cerium fluorocarbon, monazite, cerium niobium calcium titanium ore; heavy rare earth minerals are: yttrium phosphates, yttrium brown niobium ore, titanium uraninite and so on. In addition to China, CIS countries, the United States, Australia, India and other places have richer rare earth resources. Since the beginning of 2002, due to China and Brazil published rare earth resources data with the previous large changes, resulting in the U.S. Geological Survey estimates of global rare earth reserves from 100 million tons adjusted to 88 million tons, the reserve base is still maintained 15,000 million tons (Table 1). The world's rare earth resources are abundant and can meet the world's needs in the long term.
Table 1 World rare earth reserves and reserve base in 2006 Unit: 10,000,000t (REO)
Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries, 2007.
Global rare earth metal resources are abundant, but the distribution is uneven and the degree of exploration is generally not high. Rare earth resources in the United States and the world are dominated by cerussite and monazite. Most of the world's economically recoverable cerium ore is concentrated in China and the United States; monazite ore is mainly distributed in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States. Rare earth resources also include apatite, thorium-rich monazite, anisotropy, secondary monazite, cerium-niobium-calcium-titanium ore, clay ores containing adsorbed ionic rare earths, and yttrium phosphorite. The resource potential of rare earths is huge and will be sufficient to meet global demand in the future.
Two, production
Before 1960, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Australia have been in the production of raw materials of rare earths, each leading, to the mid-1960s, the United States in the production of rare earths on the dominant position. From the 80's China gradually entered the international rare earth market, after 1986 China has maintained an absolute leading position in the production of rare earths. At present, the main countries in the world that carry out mining and beneficiation production are China, the United States, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, India, Brazil, Malaysia and so on. And France in the production of high-purity single rare earths, Japan in the production of rare earth deep-processing products are leading the world. 2005 in China's production increased under the pull of the world rare earth oxide mine production of 251400 t, an increase of 15% (Table 2).
Table 2 World Rare Earth Production Unit: t
Note: NA indicates missing data and data have been adjusted.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook, 2001 to 2005.
China's rare earth production enterprises are located in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other eight provinces (regions), the annual production capacity of minerals is 110,000 t. Smelting and processing processing capacity reaches 140,000 to 150,000 t/year. The production capacity exceeds the total world demand. Therefore, the next 10 to 15 years, in principle, the state will not approve the construction of new rare earth metallurgical projects, mineral production is controlled at the level of 90,000t. The focus is to strengthen the development of new rare earth materials and applied research.
The U.S. molybdenum company is a long-term rare earth production enterprises, but has reduced production. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.S. Unocal (Unocal) Corporation, which mainly produces rare-earth concentrates and single rare-earth high-purity products, with a designed production capacity of 20,000t/year (REO), and the actual annual output is currently about 5,000t.
In India, there are mainly 2 rare-earth producers, namely, the Indian Rare Earths Corporation (IRE) and Kerala Minerals and Metals Corporation (KMML). IRE operates 3 monazite heavy sand mines located in Chawana Coast, Kerala, Manavalakurichi, Tamil Nadu and Orissa, with Thorium Chloride and Hydroxide as the main products.KMML also operates a monazite heavy sand mine in Chawana Coast, Kerala, with an average of 57.5% rare earth oxides, Thorium Oxide 7.96% and phosphate 28.2%. The estimated resources are ilmenite 24,000 Mt, rutile 20 Mt, zircon 50 Mt, sillimanite 60 Mt and monazite 4 Mt. The company is currently constructing a new sorting plant, which will give the company a production capacity of ilmenite of up to 3 Mt/year.
In Australia, Lynas (Lynas) company in Western Australia's Mt. Weld mine development of rare earth project is about to be completed. in December 2002 with the extraction of ore samples for flotation trial production. Commercial construction is planned to start in June-July 2003, and production will begin in March 2004, with the production of rare earth carbonate (concentrated raw material) entrusted to a Chinese separation plant for processing. Weld Hill Mine is a ****-generating mine of rare earths, tantalum, niobium and phosphate, discovered in 1980, with a mineable capacity of 7.7 million t of rare earth ore at a grade of 12% (917,000 t, REO) and a content of radioactive substances (0.0654% ThO2, 0.0039% U3O8) less than 1% of that of the Baiyun'ebao Mine in China.2002 Linus acquired 100% of the mine in 2002.
In Estonia, Silmet has been engaged in the separation of rare earth minerals at the Sillam?e treatment plant since 1969, specializing in cerium-niobium-calcium-titanium concentrates, with more than half of the raw materials supplied by Russia's Rauwoyuski plant. 1992 saw a switch to anhydrous chlorinated rare earths and rare earths in carbonic acid from Russia's Soligamsky magnesium plant, which also imports raw materials from China. 1999 saw the company's first production plant, which is located in the Sillam?e plant in Estonia. In 1999, the company established joint ventures with the Russian Soligamsky Magnesium Plant and Soworyd Metal Plant, which increased the processing capacity of cerium-niobium-calcium-titanium concentrates by 30-40% to 12,000 t/year, and the production of REO from 2,400 t/year to 3,000 t/year. In the Gulf of Finland in northeastern Estonia, Selmet also has a rare earth metals production plant with a capacity of 700 t/year and an alloy smelter.
In France, Rhodia Electronics and Catalyst Materials Group enterprises are large multinationals producing rare earth downstream products, and have actually been upgraded to a global company in charge of new rare earth materials. Currently has invested in 15 joint ventures in China, built 8 research laboratories in Shanghai, the company is headquartered in the west of France, the small seaside town of La Rochelle (La Rochelle) city. 2002 the company announced that it has developed a new generation of catalysts for diesel cars Eolys, this rare earth products can remove more than 90% of diesel or even 99% of the particles of the emissions, and currently It is now used in Peugeot and Citroen cars.
Three, use and consumption
The current consumption of rare earths are mainly in the following areas: catalytic (petrochemical, automotive exhaust purification), metallurgy, glass ceramics, permanent magnets, phosphors, nickel - metal hydride batteries and other new materials. The main consumer countries or regions are China, the United States, Western Europe, Japan. since the 1990s, with the growth of demand for automobiles, computers, consumer electronics and mobile electronic devices, making the application of rare earths, especially in automobile exhaust catalysts, permanent magnets and rechargeable batteries continue to increase. 2005 world rare earth oxides total consumption of 101,367t, a year-on-year increase of 12.6% (Table 3).
Table 3 U.S., China and world rare earth consumption Unit: t (REO)
Note: The U.S. apparent consumption data from 1992 to 2005 are quoted from the statistics of Minerals Commodity Summaries of the U.S. Bureau of Land Survey for the relevant year; the Chinese consumption from 1992 to 2005 is quoted from China Mineral Resources Yearbook 2005. World consumption is based on the literature of Judith Chegwidden, Yao Yu, Lin Chenghe, and China Rare Earths Online; NA indicates that the information is not available.
China's rare earth consumption has exceeded that of the U.S.A. since 1998, and has always been the first in the world; in 2005, China's consumption of rare earth products amounted to 51,900t, a year-on-year increase of 55.3%, accounting for 51.2% of the world's total consumption. Among them, the amount of high-tech materials for 25,000t, accounting for 47.5% of the country's total consumption; metallurgy and machinery 9,738t, accounting for 18.8%; glass and ceramics 6,500t, accounting for 12.5%; petroleum and chemical 6,000t, accounting for 11.6%; agriculture, light industry and textile 5,000t, accounting for 9.6%.
Japan is the world's highest level of rare earth research and development countries, its rare earth applications are mainly concentrated in permanent magnets, phosphors, nickel-metal hydride batteries, polishing powder and anti-ultraviolet radiation glass and other high-tech industries. According to the visual consumption statistics, the United States in 2005, the visual consumption of 15,000t, a year-on-year decline of 8.5%, ranking third in the world. Europe's annual consumption of rare earths about 10,000t, the main areas of consumption are automobile exhaust purification catalysts and glass polishing powder.
Four, trade and market
The world rare earth trade is mainly in the rare earth resources of the richer countries and economically developed countries.
China has maintained a special position as a rare earth exporter since 1998, and is not only the world's first big exporter of rare earths, but also a big exporter of high-purity, high value-added products. In the world rare earth market, China is the only country that can supply large quantities of different grades and varieties of rare earth products. China's rare earth product exports mainly to Japan, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Italy and South Korea and other more than 40 countries and regions.
The U.S. imports rare earths from China, France, India and other countries on the one hand, and exports rare earth products to more than 30 countries and regions in the world on the other hand. 2005 U.S. imports of rare earth products amounted to 22,351t, a year-on-year decline of 4.9%, the U.S. source of imports of rare earth metals and compounds are mainly China, France, Japan, and Russia and so on. Exports amounted to 9,680t, down 20% year-on-year, mainly caused by the decline in imports from Germany, Canada, Estonia and Japan.
Japan does not have rare earth resources, need to use the import of rare earth materials to develop its rare earth industry. 2005 rare earth product output of 9030t, imports of 31106t, an increase of 16.2% year-on-year, of which rare earth compounds and rare earth metal imports increased, while yttrium imports fell. Imports originating from China amounted to 27,279t, accounting for 87.7%. Sources of other imports included the United States, France, India, Estonia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany and Norway.
Price, from 2000 to 2005, the price of China's rare earth products continued to fall, and the rare earth market is still in the trough period. Among them, the price of samarium metal (Sm≥99%), in 2005, was 100-140 yuan/kg, remained unchanged; cerium metal (Ce≥99%), 35-40 yuan/kg, down 11% year-on-year; lanthanum oxide (La2O3≥99%), 12-26 yuan/kg, down 20.0% year-on-year; europium oxide (Eu2O3≥99%), 1,800-2,200 yuan /kg, down 21.4% year-on-year; only neodymium metal, Nd ≥ 99%, the price rose to RMB 95-105/kg, up 31.9% year-on-year. The main reason is the surplus of rare earth products, the manufacturers cut prices to compete for sales.
The U.S. domestic market prices are relatively stable, 2004 to 2005, little change. 2005 cerium fluorocarbon concentrate price of $5.51/kg, remained unchanged, monazite concentrate price remained 0.73 U.S. dollars / kg. while the import price of the products rose: rare earth metals, from 5.22 U.S. dollars / kg to 6.68 U.S. dollars / kg. Import prices declining The products are cerium compounds (excluding cerium chloride), from $4.67/kg to $3.27/kg; chlorinated rare earths, the average price of imports from 2.41 U.S. dollars / kg in 2004 to 2.37 U.S. dollars / kg. Other products in 2005, the import price is basically the same as in 2004.
Rhodia's rare earth oxides ex-factory price is also relatively stable, compared with 2004, the price in 2005 basically unchanged (Table 4).
Table 4 Ex-works price of rare earth oxides of Rhodia in 2005 Price unit: USD/kg
Source: Minerals Yearbook, 2005.
V. Prospect
In recent years, the supply of rare earth products has been in a situation of oversupply and there was also a price war in the second half of 2001, which not only Resulted in the price of certain products fell more than 40%, but also to the product of the profit margin has caused great pressure, forcing many poor efficiency of the enterprise bankruptcy, even if the existing enterprise most of its operation in the very low profit, in 2003, although the consumption of rare earths growth, but the production is still too much, resulting in the price continues to be low.
According to an analysis by Business Wire, it appears that the situation reached its lowest point in 2003, and a reversal of the situation is expected. Applications for rare earths, particularly in automotive exhaust catalysts, permanent magnets and rechargeable batteries, will continue to grow, especially as demand for automobiles, computers, consumer electronics and mobile electronics grows. Demand for neodymium and cerium, which are used in permanent magnets and automotive exhaust catalysts, will increase by a large margin in the coming years, as will demand for rare earths in Ni-MH batteries, medical devices, sensors, and dental and surgical lasers. Magnetic refrigeration will be commercialized. Erbium-doped optical fibers will enter a new period of high demand.
So, the U.S. business communications company predicted that the next few years the global demand for rare earths will be an average annual growth rate of 3.2 percent, to 2007 will reach 90,000 ~ 100,000 t. By then, the world's output value of rare earths will reach 2 billion U.S. dollars. Industries with strong growth include electronics, permanent magnets, glass and ceramics, and industries related to consumer electronics.
Key References
[1] James B. Hedrick, Rare Earths.Mineral Commodity Summaries, 2007
[2] James B. Hedrick, Rare Earths.U.S. Geological Survey, Minerals Yearbook, 2005
[3] Jane Spooner, Rare Earths.Mineral Annual Review, 2006
[4] Rare Earths Information, No. 1 to No. 3, 2006
[5] Rare Earths Information. No.1～No.3, 2007
[6] The 2nd International Rare Earth Conference in Hong Kong Closed - China's Rare Earth Development Momentum is Strong. China Rare Earths Online: /aboutus/meeting/0328b.htm