EARTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Rare Earth Element, Lanthanum, Europium
16 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Not rare; they just don"t occur in concentrated, pure deposits, requiring massive op operations. Have to mine huge volumes of rock to extract small amounts of them. Minerals: naturally occurring, fixed chemical composition, crystalline structure. Gold is both a mineral and an element. Lanthanum (la) - discovered in 1893, more la than silver or lead in the crust of the earth, Ree, set aside in dumps awaiting higher prices in the 70s/80s. Now valuable because it is used as a catalyst: pushes reaction forward; an additive. Neodymium (nd) - lasers, strong magnets, used in prius generators, wind turbines, aircraf. Europium (eu) - used in anything with an lcd screen (provides blue or red color on screen) fluorescent bulbs their warm color. Since 2000, china has produced 95% of the worlds ree. World"s dependence on chinese ree"s became clear towards the end of 2010 when restrict exports; result was a 2000% spike in prices.
