- TECHNOLOGY RARE EARTH ElEMENTS
SPECIAL METALS
Batterien in Hybridfahrzeugen, fluoreszierende Streifen in Banknoten, Festplatten, Zündkerzen und
Mikrowellen haben eins gemeinsam: Zu ihrer Herstellung braucht man Seltene Erden, Über Eigen·
schaften und Bedeutung dieser Metalle tür Wirtschaft und Technik berichtet MARTON RADKAI. "ifi@UUhen somerhing is very valuable, we say [hat
ir is "worrh its weight in gold. n In times of
eeonomie uncertainty, the priee of gold rises
on the eommodities markers, and the 17
merals cal[ed "rare eaub elements" (REEs),
or simply "rare eanhs," may soon !Je wonh their weight
in gold, too. Financial analysts, scienrisrs, and Illini.n&
engineers are getting excited - and worried, too -
about rare eanhs, but most people probably havc nev-
er heard of these elements, whieh inclllde neodymjum,
samarium, and europium (see list on opposite page),
Rare earths have remained relatively unknown be-
ea use, unlike imn, tjranium, or uraoium, [hey are not
commonly used as material for building, or even as a
fiW., Bur because [hey eoodycr cleetrieiry exrremely
weil, they are essential for many of the eleetronic prod-
uctS we lIse, as weil as for the cars wc drive, and even
for tbe money we spend.
For example, rare eanhs are used to ~ fiber oprjcs
o r semiconduerors ro cha nge their eleetrieal propeu;es.
Thanks tO the developmenr of ncodymium magnets, CD
players have become mucb smaller. Samarium is used as
a neutron absorber in nuclear reaetors, or as an infra red
absorber in optieal glass. The red color on television
screens and the partielilar glow of flyorescem [ighIS de-
pcnd on th c presenee of europium. The same element isKcessibility [ak,ses;)'bll;:,til
;tCid ['leSld[
basln3esite ['l)restnJsau J
boron ['bJ;ro;n·'
cerium ['slriJm- 1
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Saure --
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So.
Cer (Zer)
Lehrstuhl; hier:
_ ____ Lenrst uhlinhabe!ili!) __ _
commodity 1k;J'mu:dJli·1 Rohstotf
conduct slh. [k:m'dAktl etw. leiten
counlerfeit 5th. ['kaunt ... fn-,, ___ ~elw. falschen ~==_
crut! ['belzl - große Mode; hier: ange-
dopt' slh, [doup'1
e~tract sth. [11.:.'~tr(Cktl
liber optics [,ralb'r 'u:pllh-[sagtes Spekulatlonsob~kl
elw. dolleren
etw. gewinnen
(Glas-)Faser.-Uchtwellen-
leiter
flotation [flOO'ICIJ'11-[ Flotation
fluorescent lighl[flJ;,res'nl 'lau ,-- Leuchtstof!lampe
fuel ['fju:;)11 BrennstOff
grind 5th. [gralndl etw. feinmahlen
hybrid vehicle [,h:ubrld 'Yi:"k.:.' .. ·,.----- iiHYbfldfahrZeUg
iron ['at>rn-] Eisen --
issue ['IJu:1 Thema, Problem
lant hanide['fa:riOJnll,dl Lantnanid
lanthanum 1'hcnO.:mJrn) Lanthan
also used [0 creare the lum;nesceoee in euro banknotes
as a way [0 prevem coumcrfejrin&,
For Kolya K" a young and dynamie investor in Gene-
va, Switzerland, these elements offer a great investment
opporrunity, " Rare eanh metals are the next lliß." he
says. " In our reehnology-driven world, we need more
and more of these metals, sinee they are used for prae-
tkally evcryrhing nowadays; iPhones, TVs, laptops, bat-
reries, "
Bur what will really srimulate demand for rare eanhs
is the rise of "clean rech," or green teehnology, The bar-
teries used to run eleetrie or hybrid vehjcles depend on
the use of laorbanym, And wind tyrbjnes, whieh many
people hope will reduce our dcpendcnce on oil, require
large and powcrful, permanent neodymium-iron-h2r!ln
(NlB ) magnets,
Rare eanhs are, in fact, not really rare, They are more
comrnon than some other metals, including gold, bur
are not found in such great concenrration, And the rare
earths are very diffieuh and expensive to ~ from
the minerals thar eonrain them, for example, monaz;re,
xeootime, and bastnaesire, p[OCCSS;Il~ is also complex.
The raw marerial has to be crushed, ~[Qund, separared
rhrough flotation, and rhen leacbed using a9ds.
Aceording ro many experts, the biggest problem re-
garding rare canhs is [hat more rhan 95 percent of theleach sth. [li:tß
luminescence J.lu:ml'ncs·ns1
mining engineeretw, auslaugen, hIer:
e~trahleren
lumlfleszenz. leuchten
BergbauIngen ieur( in)
['nlulnlO monazite enl 'mu:n~:'Wltj d 3 I,nl'1'·[ ____ MonaZit :~f====---
neodymium[,ni;oo'dlmiJm*j- Neodym
pledatoryJ~rcdJtJ:ri*.J rauberlsch; hier, ruinOS
processing ['pro:SCSIIJ· J Verarbeitung
properly ['pru:.,.rti-) Eigenschalf---
raise red flags I,rclz ,rcd 'fLa-gzl eUle warnende Stimme
erheben
I~re earth elements (REEs) Selteneldmetalle, Seltene
[,rc:or ':l:{l ,chm~nlS (,(I:r i; 'i:~)*I, ___ Erden
scalCity ['skcrsJti·[ --- Knappheit
semiconductor [,scrnik"n'dAktor*[ Halbleite" ==0--
$Olid·state chemistry FestkOrperchemie
I,su:IJod ,stell 'kcml~tri*l
spark plug "spu;rk plAg*1
titanium ttal'kini~ml, _____ _
uranium (ju"rcmiJmf
wind turbine IWlnd 'l3;bmnj
xenotime f'zcnOOtlllnl[Zündkerze
Tilan, _____ _
Urari-
Wrndkraftanlage",, __
Xenotlm, Y~al- This symbot marl<s standard US proouncialion thai d,ffers from staMdard
UK pronundat,on.
4/2010