Rare earths are critical to most high technology applications. Without them, there is basically no clean tech, advanced electronics, electric cars, flat screen technology, advance weaponry systems and the list goes on.
The importance of rare earths to the world’s advanced economies has come more sharply into focus over the past 12 to 18 months as questions of reliable supply have begun to surface. China is the world’s dominant supplier of rare earth elements over the past decade and is currently calculated to supply approximately 97% of world consumption. China has been a cheap supplier of rare earth elements over a number of years but with limited future reserves and an urgent need to address serious environmental impacts of aged mineral processing technologies used haves resulted in a tightening of export quotas. This has had the flow on impact of steeply escalating prices for rare earths, particularly in 2010.
During the past 40 years, with the technological development the number of applications for rare earths has increased significantly, and today these elements are of critical importance to all developed economies. They are found in many advanced products within the following sectors: mechanical/metallurgical, glass and ceramics, electronics, chemical, optical, energy, life sciences, sensors and instrumentation, and consumer.
In particular rare earth elements play a vital role in the emerging energy technology sector with application in high tech battery technology applied in hybrid vehicles and energy generation.
The main market drivers for growth are considered to be increased utilization of rare earths for manufacturing high-performance alloys; higher demand for permanent magnets used in hybrid vehicles and electronics; expanding markets for advanced displays utilizing rare earth.
There is not commodity exchange on which rare earth elements are traded. Their price tends to depend on the purity level and is set under private contract.