A geologist explains the basics about these elements, which are crucial for modern electronics.
Articles on Rare earth elements
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Electric cars and smartphones have created growing demand – and volatile prices – for once obscure metals.
The world is made of tiny building blocks called ‘elements’. Scientists have worked out how fast some elements change into other elements. That gives us a very big clue about how old the Earth is.
Rare earth elements aren’t actually that rare - but they certainly are useful. Erbium is used right now in the internet’s optical fibre network, and could one day be applied in quantum networks.
Siberia’s red river reminds us that mining for minerals and metals can still compromise the environment.
Metals are generally abundant throughout the Earth’s crust, but not always at the right cost in the right place at the right time.
Materials essential for technology products such as electric vehicles, wind turbines or hard disks, known as rare earth elements, aren’t becoming any less rare, or any less crucial. In fact, experts at…
An element on the fringe of the periodic table could help build safe new storage containers for radioactive waste, help separate…
Defence behemoth Lockheed Martin’s recent announcement of a venture into deep sea mining (DSM) reflects growing interest in exploiting virgin mining territory. In what is being described by some as a “deep…
Rare earth elements (REEs), for so long ignored by big mining companies, have recently become incredibly popular. But, contrary to what their names suggests, they are not particularly rare. They do, however…
News outlets recently reported a new paper in Nature Geoscience from a Japanese team documenting very large amounts of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in the mud at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. REE are essential…
Top contributors
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Research Fellow, Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements & Critical Materials, University of Birmingham
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Lecturer in International Studies, University of Washington
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Reader in Environmental Science, University of Hull
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Lecturer in Applied and Environmental Geology, University of Leicester
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Professor of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Chair in Sustainable Global Resources, UCL
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Professor of Geology, Adelaide University
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Associate Professor of Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Government, The University of Melbourne
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Assistant professor, University of Nottingham
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Graduate Research Assistant in Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology
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Lecturer in Applied and Environmental Geology, University of Leicester
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Professor of Geosciences, Franklin & Marshall College
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Principal Research Fellow - Materials, Sheffield Hallam University
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Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, RMIT University