• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This fight is for everything.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Rare Earth

Rare Earth

by John Cole|  March 8, 20114:07 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: Science & Technology

FacebookTweetEmail

What exactly are they talking about when they say “rare earth?” Are they talking specific minerals? Yes, I could google this, but it comes back with stuff I don’t understand. Like, for example, why is rare earth only found some places (and don’t tell me “because it is rare!”). If it is just a collection of minerals, can the minerals not be found independently. Basically, I don’t understand what makes rare earth different from other things like gold or silver or diamonds or whatever.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « What Is This Liberal Hater Saying?
Next Post: Stuff to Watch When You’re in A Crappy Mood »

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Tim

    March 8, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    The Wikipedia entry on Rare Earth Elements is pretty concise.

  2. 2.

    JohnR

    March 8, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    If I remember right, Lanthanides and Actinides in the old periodic table. Stuff that’s incredibly important for modern electronics and airframe/spacecraft construction. Stuff that’s found only in certain places on Earth. Stuff that China has been quietly locking up for the past couple decades. The neocons only see oil. China has been a bit more far-sighted.

  3. 3.

    Cris

    March 8, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    Never met a girl that makes me feel the way that you do, it’s all right. Whenever I’m asked what makes my dreams real, I tell them you do, it’s outta sight.

  4. 4.

    Eric S.

    March 8, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    A news story I heard some time back discussed this. It’s not so much that the minerals are rare as there are very few operating mines. That story mentioned a company, Molycorp, that was looking to restart a California mine that could produce rare earth minerals. There was another article today about a Australian company looking to open a mine in Indonesia.

  5. 5.

    RobertB

    March 8, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    All those weird elements on the broken-out section of the periodic table. Lanthanum, neodymium, stuff like that.

  6. 6.

    Urza

    March 8, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    Rare earths actually aren’t all that rare, its just that they come in such small quantities its hard to mine specifically for them.

  7. 7.

    Jim C.

    March 8, 2011 at 4:12 pm

    Huh.

    Well, in Star Control 2 “Rare Earth” elements are a decent level mineral resource. They trail “Exotics” (Weird SciFi stuff), “Radioactives” (Uranium and the like), and “Precious Metals” (Gold, Platinum, etc.) in terms of how good the resources are.

    But they’re above four other categories of minerals (Noble Gasses, Base Metals, etc.) so overall they’re above average.

  8. 8.

    AliceBlue

    March 8, 2011 at 4:12 pm

    Sheesh. At first I thought you were talking about the 1970s rock group. Anyone else remember “Get Ready” and “I’m Losing You”?

  9. 9.

    arthropod

    March 8, 2011 at 4:12 pm

    “Rare earth” is shorthand for “rare earth metals” or “rare earth elements”. There are a bunch of them, many of which have various high-tech applications.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element

  10. 10.

    Stillwater

    March 8, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    And how’d China end up with alla them? Was our nightwatchman asleep at the wheel?

  11. 11.

    mantis

    March 8, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    Rare earth elements aren’t all that rare, actually. However, unlike a lot of other minerals, they are not usually found in large concentrations, but are dispersed more evenly in the ground. As such, they are “rare” in the sense that they are difficult to mine or otherwise exploit commercially.

    There are currently 17 rare earth elements: Cerium, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Gadolinium, Holmium, Lanthanum, Lutetium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Promethium, Samarium, Scandium, Terbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, and Yttrium.

  12. 12.

    The Bobs

    March 8, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    I recommend the Wikipedia article as well. It is important to note that there are many deposits of these minerals. The Mountain Pass mine in California is a large deposit that is going to be reopened soon.

    China monopolized the market because they have deposits that are low in thorium, the source of the radioactivity mentioned in the article. They also undercut everyone on price.

    I disagree that they have been farsighted, they will now lose their monopoly, and the other deposits will reap the benefits of the escalated prices.

  13. 13.

    Zifnab

    March 8, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    I think one good example is Cobalt. There are only a handful of cobalt mines in the world, but the mineral is necessary in the production of electric vehicle batteries.

  14. 14.

    AliceBlue

    March 8, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    @Cris: Ya beat me to it. Rock on.

  15. 15.

    jwalden91lx

    March 8, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    I’ll try to take a stab at this as a complete layman:
    Precious Metals – Gold, Silver, Platinum, etc.
    Rare-Earth Elements – Neodymium, Promethium, Holmium, etc

    From what I understand, precious metals are rare – i.e. smaller deposits of them on (or in) the Earth, and Rare-Earth Metals are even scarcer elements than precious metals, making them not only harder to acquire, but more expensive as well.

    All that is even before you get to applications. I got alot of that just from the wikipedia pages for “Rare Earth Metals” and “Precious Metals”.

  16. 16.

    meh

    March 8, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    good explanation here

  17. 17.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    Well, here is the Wikipedia entry:

    As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanoids plus scandium and yttrium.[2] Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earth elements since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanoids and exhibit similar chemical properties.

    Dunno how detailed an explanation you want. The article you linked to indicates that Australia at least has some mineable REs and is refining them in Malaysia. I’d feel better if there were a much closer supply.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    March 8, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    @Stillwater:
    China has few problems with doing things like building roads, bridges, stadiums and so forth to “build friendships” with countries in, say, Africa. If that results in China locking up various mineral rights and increasing their access to oil, well, my goodness, isn’t that a fortuitous coincidence.

  19. 19.

    MonkeyBoy

    March 8, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    They are probably talking about the really valuable ones. Probably Niobium and Tantalum which are a major cause of bloodshead in the Congo .

  20. 20.

    Morbo

    March 8, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Yes, I could google this, but it comes back with stuff I don’t understand.

    Chortle, this post guest written by Megan McArdle.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    March 8, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Rechargeable batteries. Laptop, cell phone, ipod, ipad.

  22. 22.

    Zoe J

    March 8, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    There is an excellent recent book on the periodic table of the elements, The Disappearing Spoon, that has a really nice section on the rare earths. I learned far more than I ever thought I wanted to know about the rare earths (and other topics) from this book, but that I am really happy I know now. Basically, they hang out together due to the way they arrange electrons, which makes them behave in similar ways.

  23. 23.

    Anon84

    March 8, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Here’s what you need to know about ‘Rare Earth’ minerals. Their mining and processing produces so much pollution that China has become concerned enough to start cutting back on production.
    That’s like a pig farmer complaining about the smell comming from next door.

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    March 8, 2011 at 4:23 pm

    Rare earths aren’t actually all that rare. When they were first discovered, they were unusual, and the name stuck. The problem economically is that most of the mines for the things have been shut down, and there’s an enormous capital cost (and time cost) associated with reopening them. The mines are still there, and haven’t been played out, so if the costs get high enough, they can be reopened.

    Funnily enough, this came up in conversation with my colleagues yesterday. We counted, and realized that in our little lab group, we’re studying compounds involving 6 different rare earth elements.

    dms

  25. 25.

    MattR

    March 8, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    @Morbo:

    Chortle, this post guest written by Megan McArdle.

    Heh. Although if this was true, it would have been filled with erroneous conclusions based on things not understood.

  26. 26.

    liberty60

    March 8, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    I thought they were rare because the liberals won’t let us drill in ANWR.

    p.s. Don’t give me any of that elite intellectual stuff- I know what I know, and don’t need any Gerorge Soros talking points.

    p.s.s Also, Algore is fat.

  27. 27.

    Face

    March 8, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    According to Huckabee, it means they’re from Kenya.

  28. 28.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Completely off topic, PA Gov Corbett announced his budget. Included are some items that we’ve seen before in other states:

    The state hospitals, meanwhile, could lose about 400 forensic psychiatrists. Those jobs would be contracted out to private companies. Mr. Zogby said many of those 400 could likely find work with the private companies.

    Support for the four state-related universities, which include the University of Pittsburgh, was halved in the budget proposal. It calls for Pitt to get $80.2 million. This year’s budget provides Pitt with $160.5 million in state money plus $7.5 million in federal stimulus funds.
    __
    Penn State would see a similar cut, from the current year’s $334 million down to $165 million.

    The Corbett budget also cuts funding in half for the State System of Higher Education, which includes California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana, Slippery Rock and nine other universities. Funding is budgeted at $233 million, down from $465 million.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Corbett wants to hire 230 more state troopers, to boost ranks in advance of significant anticipated trooper retirements in coming years.
    __
    Environmental protection funding would decrease from $147 million to $140 million, even as more and more energy companies are introducing chemicals into the ground as they drill for natural gas.

    And the money shot:

    And in his speech, Mr. Corbett reiterated his opposition to taxing the gas that comes from the Marcellus Shale, saying the state should try to make itself the center of the drilling boom for Marcellus and the underlying Utica Shale.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    March 8, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    OT…Just received a phone call from a Dick Morris organization that asked who I wanted to see beat Obama in 2012. I answered no one and hung up the phone. I’m regretting my decision, maybe I should have said Palin but who knows who was actually one the list. I didn’t wait that long. Be prepared if you are called.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    March 8, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    Problems with rare earths have to do with their chemistry, their geology, and the environmental damage you suffer from mining them– rather than their ‘rare-earthiness’.

    Also, the economics don’t really work– none of them is important enough to go ‘full-scale’, so mining and refining is relatively small-scale and expensive. And no one really needs any of them, so they’re almost not worth the trouble–typically, some metallurgist discovered that a little dab of neodymium made that magnet work a whole lot better. What to do if you can’t get neodymium is not the metallurgist’s problem

  31. 31.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Also too, I did not know this (although alluded to by @Urza: )

    Despite their name, rare earth elements (with the exception of the highly unstable promethium) are relatively plentiful in the Earth’s crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million (similar to copper).

  32. 32.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 8, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    @Morbo:

    Chortle, this post guest written by Megan McArdle.

    Ah, but the difference is McArdle wouldn’t even acknowledge she doesn’t understand, and would just make shit up.

  33. 33.

    kth

    March 8, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    @Cris: aaah, your love is fay-fay-fay-fay

    Also:

    The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
    Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
    Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
    The revolution will not be televised.</blockquote

  34. 34.

    Lizzy

    March 8, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    They’re a group from the 60’s! I think I still have their album somewhere…

  35. 35.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    March 8, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    @Poopyman:

    And in his speech, Mr. Corbett reiterated his opposition to taxing the gas that comes from the Marcellus Shale, saying the state should try to make itself the center of the drilling boom for Marcellus and the underlying Utica Shale.

    truly nauseating, i mean leave aside the whole argument about marcellus shale (private dick) that we should have had, now the crux of corbett’s argument is that we have to work harder to be exploited more, faster, for less. ruin our environment, take away our resources from future generations better than all those other states.

    when teen sluts are called out for this exact behavior on maury povich, it is termed self-destructive, a death wish, and they are greatly shamed, their behavior is darkly titillating and satisfies a deep Schadenfreude that even the promise of youth is spoiled and the victim/guests are destroying that which the viewer would die for.

  36. 36.

    Dr. Squid

    March 8, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    @Morbo: If it were written by McMegan, she go on about how she knows so much, then flap her yawp about chlorine.

  37. 37.

    Snayke

    March 8, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    What they are has been answered enough, but if the U.S. can start mining for them again, we could be flush. Most production ended in the 1990s because China dominates the market. The government (DoD) buys it up from China because it’s so cheap.

    I’ve heard from one mine owner that they tried to find a buyer and it turned out to be a Chinese-owned company in Canada. When they aren’t mining it, they’re buying it up, too.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    March 8, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    OT bleg, anyone have links to reports or studies done where a voucher program was introduced into an area and the private schools raised their rates to keep the status quo?

  39. 39.

    PurpleGirl

    March 8, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    @Stillwater: Our corporate overloads decided it was cheaper to buy them from China than to mine them domestically.

  40. 40.

    Moonbatting Average

    March 8, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    @Poopyman:

    Corbett is such an asshole. Geologic formations have limited lateral extent. If the best Marcellus and Utica plays are in PA, then the gas companies will still drill there even if he taxes them a little. But of course he knows that.

  41. 41.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 8, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    I also feel like this thread needs more Tom Lehrer.

  42. 42.

    jl

    March 8, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    What I want to know is whether Illudium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, is a rare earth? I think it is, but then how could it be found on Planet X, since it is after all, a rare ‘earth’?

  43. 43.

    arguingwithsignposts

    March 8, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    @Poopyman:
    Shorter Corbett: That was a nice state you had there, shame something had to happen to it.

  44. 44.

    R-Jud

    March 8, 2011 at 4:54 pm

    @Poopyman:

    The Corbett budget also cuts funding in half for the State System of Higher Education, which includes California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana, Slippery Rock and nine other universities. Funding is budgeted at $233 million, down from $465 million.

    I will phone my Dad now, to see if he’s still employed…

  45. 45.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: @Moonbatting Average: @arguingwithsignposts: Just FYI, JC has opened a new post on Corbett and the frackin’ shale issue.

  46. 46.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    @R-Jud: I’m betting no decisions will be made until the end of this school year. For one thing, they’re probably in a state of shock right now, despite knowing Corbett was going to drop the hammer.

    ETA: And what of our own Geg6?

  47. 47.

    amorphous

    March 8, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    Screw rare earths, amorphous has his money in platinum group futures, specifically ruthenium. You just watch it skyrocket once it gets commercially applied in the semi industry. Just watch.

    @MonkeyBoy: …Neither of which are rare earths but are transition metals.

  48. 48.

    El Cid

    March 8, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    The US has quite a large supply of rare earth minerals. It’s just so much cheaper to get them from China that there isn’t much of an infrastructure to get it here.

    The USGS estimates that the US possesses 1/3rd of China’s reserves, but China produces about 95%.

    The dependence by world markets almost completely upon a single country whose consumption of those elements are even larger seems the kind of thing governments used to be leery of.

  49. 49.

    chopper

    March 8, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    nomenclature. as mentioned above, it isn’t rarity, it’s how concentrated it is in the earth’s crust.

    many precious metals can be found in veins of reasonable concentration, much of which is actually spread out in source rock and ore but concentrated in areas over time by biological action (gold is a good example). i don’t think rare earths benefit from that, so it’s harder to find and mine.

  50. 50.

    R-Jud

    March 8, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    @Poopyman: If he coached football instead of track and field, I wouldn’t be worried. I hope Mom gets re-elected. Otherwise I’ll be making room in my office for them.

  51. 51.

    Lockwood

    March 8, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    Zoe J (#22) pretty much hit the important point: they’re not all that rare, compared to many other elements, but they have very similar chemical properties. That latter point means that not only do normal earth processes concentrate them into naturally rich deposits, as with many other earth materials- ores- but industrially they are difficult to separate as well. However, even though they are similar, they do exhibit slightly different physical and electrical properties as components of manufactured material. So you can’t just substitute one for another.

    The reason China currently has a lock on them is their environmental laws and enforcement is lax, but they’re still a pretty developed and industrial nation. They have the means to extract and refine REE’s, but undercut other producers to ignoring the awful environmental damage that come with doing it cheaply.

    The problem is that China pretty much drove other producers out of business, then decided to limit exports, probably in hopes of encouraging more manufacturers to invest and build production sites there. But the materials and products that use REE’s are of enormous economic and strategic importance, and the idea of being at China’s mercy suddenly caught broad attention about a year ago. Thus the “crisis.”

  52. 52.

    Chad N Freude

    March 8, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    For one US rare earth company’s expansion plans, see Molycorp Minerals. The CEO’s letter on the front page contains the following:

    Rare Earths, or “Green Elements,” are critical to enabling and furthering the many green energy technologies, high tech applications and defense systems on which our nation’s economy, security and future depend. We refer to these as “Rare Earth Dependent Technologies” because they cannot be produced without Rare Earth materials.
    __
    Currently, Rare Earth Dependent Technologies are nearly 100% reliant on Chinese-sourced materials. While in recent years China has managed to supply the entire world’s demand for Rare Earths, a dramatic shift is beginning to take place. As global requirements for Rare Earths continue to grow considerably (fueled primarily by the development and deployment of green energy technologies like hybrid vehicles, energy efficient lighting and wind power), China’s own domestic use of its resources is also soaring—with internal consumption presently at about 60% of production and rising rapidly.
    __
    The best plan for ensuring the future security of America’s Rare Earth Dependent Technologies is developing a strong domestic Rare Earth industry based on the responsible use of our own strategic reserves.
    __
    Fortunately, the U.S. has one of the world’s largest and richest Rare Earth deposits at Molycorp Minerals’ facility in Mountain Pass, California. At Mountain Pass we are producing certain Green Elements and plans are in place to bring the facility back into full production following an extensive modernization and expansion project. With appropriate federal assistance for research, development and capital costs, Molycorp Minerals is prepared to move forward to reestablish domestic manufacturing capacity on an expedited basis.

    Read the last sentence. Several times.

  53. 53.

    elmo

    March 8, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Thank you for doing that so I didn’t have to.

  54. 54.

    Tim in SF

    March 8, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    Yay! Geek stuff at Balloon-Juice! My favorite type of post!

    Speaking of Thorium, THIS is AWESOME. We should totally make these here.

  55. 55.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    @Chad N Freude: Verrrry interesting. Your tax dollars at work.

    You know, I’d be OK with that if the taxpayers got a share of the company in exchange. But that would be … wrong?

  56. 56.

    chopper

    March 8, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    @Lockwood:

    well, lanthanides are chemically different than transition and main group elements, the 4f orbital acts a bit goofy. they’re chemically dissimilar. at least that’s what i remember from physics.

  57. 57.

    Librarian

    March 8, 2011 at 5:33 pm

    @Cris: Fee fi fo fo fum, look out baby ’cause here I come.

  58. 58.

    Chad N Freude

    March 8, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    @Poopyman: The point being that government financial support of anything that isn’t a corporate enterprise (you know, like people) is socia1ist and raises the deficit and all those other bad things.

  59. 59.

    Chad N Freude

    March 8, 2011 at 5:42 pm

    @Poopyman: Giving federal money to Molycorp would create jobs, create middle class wealth, increase government revenues, etc. so the taxpayers would benefit big time.

  60. 60.

    LT

    March 8, 2011 at 5:43 pm

    I’m sure someone has explained it by now, but having just written about this, these aren’t minerals, these are metals, in the periodic table sense of the word. Wiki has a good short description of why they’re called rare earth metals.

    A cool fact, just because: All the metals on earth are older than the earth. And were, of course, made in stars (or in the supernovae of stars).

  61. 61.

    Citizen_X

    March 8, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    As others have mentioned, the rare earth elements aren’t rare. They very commonly substitute for other elements (calcium, magnesium, etc.) in trace quantities in common minerals like feldspars.

    Those occurrences are not economically recoverable, however. If you need to extract useful amounts of rare earth elements, you need actual rare-earth-rich minerals. There are literally hundreds of obscure rare earth minerals, but the most common ones are monazite and bastnaesite. These occur worldwide.

    The Chinese have cornered the market because they have extremely rich deposits, and they have cheap costs (yeah, probably environmental regs are inadequate, but their labor costs are low, too). The Mountain Pass, CA deposits are also extremely rich. If China cut off the supply to the world, the price would rise to the point where the world would be able to afford to produce their own deposits, so I don’t see the point of the freakout.

  62. 62.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    @Chad N Freude: Where have I heard something like that before? Hmmmm….

  63. 63.

    celticdragonchick

    March 8, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    Rare earth cations often don’t fit well into the crystal lattice of most common silicate minerals like the various feldspars etc. So, since they don’t play well with most minerals and are not rock forming elements in any sense (like Si, Al, Mg, Fe and oxygen), they tend to be some of the last things to precipitate out of an igneous melt. They are sometimes associated with really strange magma compositions like carbonatites (calc-alkaline rift zone volcanism).

  64. 64.

    LT

    March 8, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    Basically, I don’t understand what makes rare earth different from other things like gold or silver or diamonds or whatever.

    Gold and silver are metals, again, in the periodic table sense off the word. Diamond is not – it’s made of pure carbon – but carbon is a non-metal. There are in fact only a few non-metals. Even sodium is a metal.

    “Metals” like steel are more properly called alloys – in steel’s case an iron alloy – a mix of an elemental metal or metals with other elements.

  65. 65.

    Citizen_X

    March 8, 2011 at 5:48 pm

    @LT: All elements on earth are older than the earth, and–except hydrogen–were made in stars. Thus the Carl Sagan line about how we are “made of starstuff.”

  66. 66.

    Poopyman

    March 8, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    @LT: … At least those higher on the chart than iron. IIRC, stellar interiors produce iron as the final step before the collapse.

    But that’s just science and everybody knows metals were made a couple of hundred years before Jesus rode the dinosaurs.

  67. 67.

    LT

    March 8, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    @Citizen_X: Well, yes, but it’s, for me anyway, more actually mindblowing that a gold or silver ring on someone’s finger is older than the planet.

  68. 68.

    Jinchi

    March 8, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    The Economist has a pretty good summary of all the key points

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/09/rare-earth_metals:

    What makes the rare earths so special is the way they can react with other elements to get results that neither could achieve alone. They are used, a pinch here and a pinch there, to make powerful permanent magnets for lightweight electric motors, phosphors for colour television and flat-panel displays, catalysts for cars and chemical refineries, rechargeable batteries for hybrid and electric cars, generators for wind turbines, as well as numerous optical, medical and military devices. To give just one example, every Toyota Prius has over 25 pounds of lanthanum in its nickel-metal hydride battery.

  69. 69.

    LT

    March 8, 2011 at 5:57 pm

    @Poopyman: I found it hard to understand the details on just how high it could go in the interior of stars. It seemed to be implied that it could only go as high as iron, then it required events like supernovas, or maybe the collision of stars, for the higher ones. In any case it was, as far as I understood, the early massive stars – that naturally have a shorter lifespan – that “seeded” the universe with metals (and other elements) that allowed for later starts, like our Sun, to be “metal-rich” stars. Sound about right?

  70. 70.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    March 8, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    “China has been a bit more far-sighted.”

    Not hard to beat the neo-cons: they’re like Mr. Magoo.

    On Thorium: yep, looks good for the next generation of reactors.

  71. 71.

    Arclite

    March 8, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    @Jim C.:

    Well, in Star Control 2…

    Daily Geek award to Jim, for referencing a 20 year old PC game.

  72. 72.

    Herbal Infusion Bagger

    March 8, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    ” All the metals on earth are older than the earth.”

    Anything above helium is older than the earth. Except daughter products of radioactive decay, and those (mostly) came from something that was heavier.

    Oh, and stuff that’s gotten hit by the odd cosmic ray, like Carbon-14.

    But that carbon and oxygen and calcium and phosphorous and nitrogen and iron that you’re made of? >99.9% of it was made in the heart of a now-dead star.

    The hydrogen in you’s been around from the Big Bang, though. Probably wonders when that carbon’s gonna get off its lawn.

    There’s a great Primo Levi essay following the chemical changes in a single carbon atom in his “Periodic Table” collection of stories and essays.

  73. 73.

    Chad N Freude

    March 8, 2011 at 6:12 pm

    @Citizen_X: The point of freaking out is that right now the Chinese have something we need right now!!!

  74. 74.

    buermann

    March 8, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    They’re “rare” because they’re hard to extract, they’re some of the most abundant elements in earth but mining them is dirty, hard, dangerous work, and environmentally expensive. China has such a large share of the global market because they have abundant dirt cheap hard labor and no public feedback into decisions about where to dump the massive quantities of radioactive waste and toxic chemical byproducts produced from the extraction process.

    There is no shortage of the stuff, there is no Chinese monopoly on production, and if prices go up it will allow shuttered mines to re-open or the world’s vast, vast trash heaps of tech junk to be recycled. Alternatively, we lower costs by letting producers poison more freely, bust unions, maybe employ some convict labor.

    We could also stand to invest more into finding technological solutions for cleaner, more efficient mining and recycling processes for the stuff, and maybe repeating ad nauseum this scare story about the yellow menace will influence the DoD’s industrial policy and direct some of our super abundant public resources that way instead of towards more rube goldberg flying machines and silly anime inspired death delivery systems.

  75. 75.

    Simp

    March 8, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    here is a great book recommendation for you John.

  76. 76.

    LT

    March 8, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    The concept of extinct elements is pretty mindblowing, too. (Plutonium is believed – has been proven? – to have existed on Earth, and has naturally radiated itself out of existence in the 4.5 billion years we’ve been around.

    They don’t have a Rainbow Warrior for plutonium, bigoted bastards.

  77. 77.

    different church-lady

    March 8, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    I think it means Quadaffi has Yellowcake! Invade!!!

  78. 78.

    henqiguai

    March 8, 2011 at 6:55 pm

    @AliceBlue (#8):

    Anyone else remember “Get Ready” and “I’m Losing You”?

    Yes, by the Temptations. Or were you referring to the much later coverage by Motown’s first mega-hit white group “The Rare Earth” ?

    Yeah, pedantic and, probably, late. But who am I to pass up such easy low hanging fruit ?

  79. 79.

    Cheryl Rofer

    March 8, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    There’s a fair bit of accurate information in this thread, and some not-so-accurate. (Cobalt is not a rare earth, for example.) John’s questions:

    Are they talking specific minerals? Yes, I could google this, but it comes back with stuff I don’t understand. Like, for example, why is rare earth only found some places (and don’t tell me “because it is rare!”). If it is just a collection of minerals, can the minerals not be found independently. Basically, I don’t understand what makes rare earth different from other things like gold or silver or diamonds or whatever.

    Starting with the last, I would recommend some of the reading that’s already been recommended on the periodic chart. A short answer is that what makes rare earths different is the same thing that makes iron different from cobalt, lead, oxygen, and all of them different from each other, namely the numbers of protons in the nucleus and the electrons orbiting the nucleus. As has been mentioned, the rare earths are useful in many high-tech applications.

    The rare earths (should really be called metals rather than earths, that’s a long-ago misunderstanding from how chemistry developed from geology) include several metals, also called lanthanides from lanthanum, the first member of the series in the periodic table. The actinides are NOT rare earths. They tend to be found together in minerals and are fairly common as such things go.

    They are found in particular places for the same reasons that gold, silver, and petroleum are found in particular places. The geologic history required to concentrate them is found only in those particular places. And a lot of that is not well understood.

    The refining part is a bit complex because there are usually several rare earths in an ore, and frequently thorium is mixed in. Thorium is radioactive. The chemistry of the rare earths is similar enough that it’s fairly difficult to separate them, although methods have been worked out. It’s not really more damaging environmentally than any other mineral processing operation, which can be pretty bad if you’re not careful, fairly clean if you are. And the latter does cost more.

    I helped to plan for the cleanup of a Soviet uranium-processing plant that was converted to rare earth refining and conversion to a more environmentally-friendly process. I’ve been wondering where they sit in all this furor; they were once the third-largest producer, IIRC. Probably should ask some of my colleagues there.

  80. 80.

    EAM

    March 8, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    @LT (69): as @Herbal Infusion Bagger (72) partly points out, all elements except Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, and Beryllium were / have been made in stars of one kind or another. The first 4 above were formed as part of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (Hydrogen from previously unglued quarks, then the rest via fusions). Stars fuse the rest of the elements together, and also create Helium from Hydrogen. (Interestingly, Beryllium tends to be destroyed on average by stars — you can tie down part of cosmology if you can accurately measure the premordial Be abundance).

    Fusing light elements into heavy elements takes place in the cores of the stars, and in most cases creates the energy that makes them shine. But for iron and heavier, fusing those elements takes energy from the star. Only very massive stars can generate the core pressures and temperatures needed to fuse iron, and once they do it is a quick dead end: the energy from the core no longer supports the star and it collapses on itself, fusing all the heavier elements and then exploding as a supernova.

  81. 81.

    4jkb4ia

    March 8, 2011 at 7:17 pm

    @AliceBlue:

    Yes, and both of those were Motown ripoffs.

    /Technically this is not about the post

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    March 8, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    @4jkb4ia:

    Yes, and both of those were Motown ripoffs.

    Not ripoffs. Motown was recycling company hits. And as any environmentalist knows, recycling is a good thing.

    An original Rare Earth tune:

    I just want to celebrate

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    March 8, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    By the way, people like to worry about peak oil. But peak helium is as big a deal. Rare, baby, rare.

    The US government is on track to sell the last of this stockpile within five years and let the private sector control the market.
    __
    But some scientists fear that within a few decades, there may not be any helium to control. They say we are close to running out of the second most common element in the universe. (In our solar system, most helium is inside the sun.)
    __
    At the current rate of usage, “the world would run out in 25 years, plus or minus five years,’’ Robert Richardson, a Cornell University physicist who won a Nobel Prize in 1996 for his work with superfluid helium, told a gathering of Nobel laureates in August. This is troubling news for anyone who uses helium, and that’s not just stores selling party balloons.
    __
    Anyone getting an MRI depends on helium. The extremely stable, supercooling properties of the gas maintain the scanning machines’ superconductive magnets. MRI machines account for more than a quarter of the helium used in the United States; it is also widely used in welding and provides the inert atmosphere necessary to manufacture optical fibers and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens.

  84. 84.

    Maxwel

    March 8, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    The rare earths (lanthanides) have their valence electrons in the f (l=3) subshell. Transition metals (Fe, Cu , etc.) have theirs in d (l=2) orbitals.

  85. 85.

    Keith

    March 8, 2011 at 8:37 pm

    @MonkeyBoy: You are putting some misinformation out there concerning econmically important sources of Niobium and Tantalum, (neither of which are rare earths BTW).
    The major ore source for the element Nb is in South America, Brazil to be precise.

    Tantalum tends to be yielded from African deposits, but overall volume production of Ta and Nb combined still has Brazil clearly leading. Moreover it isn’t the Congo, but rather Mozambique which is the most important African Ta producer.

    There are economically important mineral commodities associated with political difficulties in the Congo, but they are mainly first-row transition metals, coinage or noble metals.

    Certainly rare earths are not implicated in misdeeds in the Congo.

  86. 86.

    DPirate

    March 8, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    Rare earth.

    You can’t explain that!

  87. 87.

    folkbum

    March 8, 2011 at 9:40 pm

    @Zoe J: Second Disappearing Spoon. Strongly.

  88. 88.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    March 8, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    Well, read some of this. Two things: One, Rare Earth (the band) was kickass. Seriously kickass. They rock. If you don’t know who they are, you really owe it to yourself to check them out.

    Two, rare earths are one of the categories in the periodic table of the elements, and it turns out they have properties that really rock for electronics. The one I’m most familiar with is neodymium, because of the truly salutary effect it has on the weight of drivers used in P.A. speakers, making them incredibly light compared to more old school materials for the magnets that form the core of the drivers in speakers. It also figures prominently in the transformers used in the new class “D” power amps. If you play in a local band, class “D” amplifiers plus neodymium speakers make for a very easy load in at the beginning of the night, and especially a very pleasant load out at the end of the night. You’re seriously looking at cutting out anywhere between three and six hundred pounds of weight out of a typical bar band PA.

  89. 89.

    Jim C.

    March 8, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    @Arclite

    I’m so happy someone actually knew the reference!

  90. 90.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    March 8, 2011 at 11:05 pm

    @henqiguai: I was always more partial to Born to Wander, myself… but I’m Losing You is also sweet sweet sweet.

  91. 91.

    Catsy

    March 9, 2011 at 12:45 am

    @Arclite:

    Daily Geek award to Jim, for referencing a 20 year old PC game.

    And one of the best ever made, IMNSHO.

    Toys for Bob needs to make a new one. One that entirely disavows Accolade’s atrocious attempts at cashing in on the franchise without T4B.

  92. 92.

    Southern Beale

    March 9, 2011 at 9:36 am

    John, Wikipedia is your friend:

    As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanoids plus scandium and yttrium.[2] Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earth elements since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanoids and exhibit similar chemical properties.
    __
    Despite their name, rare earth elements (with the exception of the radioactive promethium) are relatively plentiful in the Earth’s crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element at 68 parts per million (similar to copper). However, because of their geochemical properties rare earth elements are typically dispersed and not often found in concentrated and economically exploitable forms known as rare earth minerals.[3] It was the very scarcity of these minerals (previously called “earths”) that led to the term “rare earth”. The first such mineral discovered was gadolinite, a compound of cerium, yttrium, iron, silicon and other elements. This mineral was extracted from a mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden; many of the rare earth elements bear names derived from this location.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Winter Wren - Point Lobos State Natural Reserve 3
Image by Winter Wren (7/31/25)

World Central Kitchen

Donate

Recent Comments

  • Jay on Sweet Dreams (Open Thread) (Jul 10, 2025 @ 4:18pm)
  • Miss Bianca on Sweet Dreams (Open Thread) (Jul 10, 2025 @ 4:17pm)
  • Archon on Justice Brown Jackson Will Not Be Silenced (Jul 10, 2025 @ 4:16pm)
  • dmsilev on Sweet Dreams (Open Thread) (Jul 10, 2025 @ 4:14pm)
  • Dorothy A. Winsor on Sweet Dreams (Open Thread) (Jul 10, 2025 @ 4:14pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!