Rare earth elements and rare metals explained by Jennifer S. Getsinger, PhD, PGeo. Article discusses companies in the space, including an overview of Commerce Resources (TSXv:CCE) properties and assets.
Business Principles, Tools, and Techniques in Participating in Various Types...
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Rare Earths and Metals Article by Resouce World
1. Rare earth
elements and
rare metals
by Jennifer S. Getsinger, PhD, PGeo.
The simple life of the Stone Age required only stone tools made of
broken rocks. With the Iron Age came the complexity of knives, war,
and forging. Mining really got going with the Bronze Age (tin, copper).
Almost all of the known mining areas of Europe were discovered by
the Romans. Refined steel, petroleum, and aluminum have defined
the modern industrial age.
Through all human history, the love of pre- lithium, there would be less treatment for bipo-
cious metals (gold, silver, platinum) has lar disorder and less possibility for electric and
woven a thread of art, beauty, culture, hybrid automobiles and certainly less twitter-
and greed. The first metals mined were the ing on cell phones (see May 2009 RW for article
easiest to extract from the Earth: magnetic on lithium).
iron, gold nuggets from streams, soft cop- The rare earth elements (REE) are usually
per from veins. The industrial and military defined as the special section of the periodic
advances of the past two centuries have table known as the lanthanide metals or lan-
progressed with improvements in mining thanides, from lanthanum (#57) to lutetium
technology. Scientists have found new uses (#71), and also yttrium (#39), totaling 15
for each element discovered. Without the chemically similar elements that occur in many
discovery of radioactive elements like ura- common rocks in small amounts. Promethium
nium, there would be no nuclear warheads, no (Pm, #61), is generally not included due to
X-rays, no medical isotopes, no radiometric dat- lack of stable isotopes and zero natural occur-
ing with its story of the immense time involved rence. The light rare earth elements (LREE)
in Earth history, no sorrowful wastelands like are commonly defined as La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm,
Hiroshima and Nagasaki or Chernobyl, no with the first four the most abundant. The
living with constant dread of the bomb, no heavy rare earth elements (HREE) are con-
hope of curing cancer. sidered more valuable as they are rarer, and
With each new technological tool and min- are defined by the U.S. Geological Survey
eral extraction technique come new prospects as Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu; and
for the mining business, new definitions of ore commonly also included with this group are
(earth materials that can be mined for a profit), Eu and Y, due to their similar properties and
new facets of progress, new dangers. If not for occurrence. The lanthanides are all reactive,
europium from the rare earth element mined silvery grey, soft metals ranging in specific
in the Mountain Pass carbonatite intrusion in gravity from 4.4 to 9.8 g/cm3, and vary in
California, colour television would never have crustal abundance from cerium, at 60 ppm as
been affordable. The computer on which this common as copper, to thulium and lutetium,
article was composed contains commodities the at 0.5 ppm the least abundant rare earths,
Romans never even imagined, in addition to yet more abundant than silver. Uses for each
the age-old useful metals they did know about depend on their unique chemical properties.
(iron, copper, gold). Without the refinement of Study of the rare earth elements (REE) is
6 www.resourceworld.com August 2009
2. ExploRIng foR METAlS of ThE fuTuRE
essential to an understanding of the petrol- well as small permanent magnets. Below is a
ogy of igneous rocks, and contributes to selection of companies involved in rare met-
various processes of radiometric dating als and rare earths.
and research into the origins of the uni-
verse. But mere curiosity is not enough to Adex Mining Inc. [ADE-TSXV] is
spark mining. This is where colour moni- “reaching new heights at Mount Pleasant,
tors and emerging electronic devices and North America’s largest tin deposit and
their expanding markets instigated devel- the world’s largest (known) reserve of
opment of affordably mining these unusual indium,” located in New Brunswick. Adex
elements. plans to reactivate former producer, the
The United States used to produce all of Mount Pleasant tungsten-molybdenum
its rare earth elements from mines such as mine, as well as to develop the related tin-
Mountain Pass in California near the Nevada indium-zinc deposit of the North Zone. In
border (conveniently located between its April 2009, Adex announced a NI 43-101
customers, the television producers of Los compliant indicated mineral resource esti-
Angeles and the neon and rare element mate of 10.88 million tonnes of Sn-In-(Zn)
phosphored fluorescent lights of Las Vegas), ore (0.43% Sn, 67.8 grams indium/tonne,
but environmental concerns about radio- 0.67% zinc, and lesser tungsten, moly, arse-
active components such as monazite and nic, copper and bismuth) at a cut-off grade
competition from less costly mining meth- of 0.25% tin-equivalent (calculated using
ods and deposits in China shut it down. Vast tin and indium but not zinc values), and a
resources of “ion-adsorption” ore in tropi- price of indium of US $500/kg. Indium is
cally weathered granitic rocks of southern used in thin-film coatings for solar panels
China, where in-place concentration of rare and in LCD monitors such as those on com-
earth metal cations in kaolinite provides puters and flat-screen televisions.
low grade, but bulk mineable deposits of Argentex Mining Corp. [ATX-TSXV] is
yttrium and the middle REEs, as well as a Vancouver junior mining company with
bastnasite production as a by-product of a cast of local star geologists including
the Bayan Obo iron mine of inner Mongolia, Kenneth Hicks (president), Colin Godwin,
have supplanted most other world suppliers Jenna Hardy, and others. Its flagship
of lanthanides. However, reborn as a private Pinguino property in southern Argentina is
company, Molycorp Minerals is now work- a “unique indium-bearing silver polymetal-
ing on reviving mining at Mountain Pass as lic” (silver-indium-zinc-lead-gold) deposit
well as manufacturing magnets. Molycorp (copper and tin are also present). Holding
is expecting renewed local support due to mineral rights to 35 properties in the
strategic concerns regarding rare metals. 60-kilometre northwest-striking Tranquilo
World market for rare metals and lan- Trend, Argentex is in a good position to
thanides can only increase with the present help meet the growing demand for indium
trend toward the proliferation of personal from the green-energy sector and Japanese
music and electronic devices and green tech- display technology applications.
nology transportation – all requiring smaller Avalon Rare Metals Inc. [AVL-TSXV]
and more powerful rechargeable batteries as recently announced additional promising
TOP: Project Geologist Angie Martin downloads data on rainfall, sun, snow, wind speed and
direction from the weather station into her computer at the Avalon Ventures Thor Lake Project
Northwest Territories. Photo by Chris Pederson.
BOTTOM: Danny Gorham and Doug McDonagh of Dahrouge Geological prepare for field work on
Commerce Resources Blue River Tantalum-Niobium Project in eastern British Columbia, Canada.
Photo courtesy Commerce resource Corp.
REFER TO TABLE OF ELEMENTS PAGE 55.
August 2009 www.resourceworld.com 7