RE SPECIAL: Minerals for the digital age
By Simon Moores
Published: Tuesday, 25 May 2010
How heavy and light rare earth elements (REE) are fundamental to today’s most advance technology markets
Magnets
Primary REE: Neodymium (Nd), Samarium (Sm)
Secondary REE: Dysprosium (Dy)
Magnets are the driving market for rare earth demand. Not only
is it the dominant consumer by volume (32%) and value (38%,
$500-550m.), but the applications of magnets are in critical
environmental and defence technologies.
Neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) has the highest strength
of...