REEs are a group of 17 chemically similar metals which got their name because they typically occur at low concentrations (between 0.5 and 67 parts per million) within the Earth’s crust.
Indispensable in modern technology – featuring in light-emitting diodes, mobile phones, electric motors, wind turbines, hard disks, cameras, magnets and low-energy lightbulbs, for example – the demand for REEs has increased steadily over the past few decades, and is predicted to rise further by 2030.
Due to their rarity and high demand, they have become very expensive. A kilogram of neodymium oxide, for instance, currently costs approximately £175, while the same amount of terbium oxide costs approximately £3,350.
China currently has a near-monopoly on the mining of REEs, although the discovery of promising new finds in Sweden was announced with great fanfare in January.
A group of German scientists from the Technical University of Munich has shown that certain types of...