What Are Rare Earth Elements RREs?

Are they really rare?

No, rare earth elements aren’t really rare, but when they were discovered in the 19th Centrury, they were difficult to classify. Besides, no one could imagine what they could ever be used for. In the Space Age they are very useful.

There are 17 RREs with names like cerium, europium, godalinium, lantheneum, smarium, ytterium and yttrium. They are found in mines with other metals, but are difficult to extract and separate. Nevertheless, RREs are worth the trouble because they can be used in high performance magnets, electric vehicle batteries, LED lights and defence technology.

China owns and controls 70 % of the world’s RREs. Canada has a respectable reserve of 15.2 Million tonnes of rare earth oxides waiting in the wings. We also mine other top priority metals that are in demand worldwide. These include gold, copper, nickel, lithium, graphite and cobalt.

You can see that Canada’s mining industry is important, not just to Canada but to modern technology.