The presentation “Application of rare earths in consumer electronics and challenges for recycling” was held by our colleague Ran Liu on the International Conference on Consumer Electronics on 8. September 2011, which focused on rare earths relevance for consumer applications.

1. Application of rare earths in consumer
electronics and challenges for recycling
ICCE 2011, 08.09.2011
Ran Liu
Matthias Buchert
Stefanie Dittrich
Andreas Manhart
Cornelia Merz
Doris Schüler

2. Contents
 Rare earth elements
 Global production and reserves
 Environmental aspects of rare earth during mining
and processing
 Rare earths used in consumer electronics
 Developing a recycling scheme
 Conclusions 2

3. Rare Earth Elements (REEs)
Heavy REE
Light REE
LREE: lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium
(Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), and scandium (Sc)
HREE: yttrium (Y), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho),
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erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu)

4. Global production and reserves
 Global production in 2010: 133 600 t
 Reserves according to USGS: 110 000 000 t (factor 823)
(reserve which can be economically extracted)
World Mine production in 2010 Rare earth reserves by countries (USGS 2011)
(USGS 2011). REO: rare earth oxide
other countries United States
22 Mio t REO 13 Mio t REO Australia
Country t REO Share 19% 11% 2 Mio t REO
1%
China 130 000 97,3% India
3 Mio t REO
Brazil 550 0,4% 3%
India 2 700 2,0%
Malaysia 350 0,3%
World Total* 133 600 100,0% CIS
19 Mio t REO China
17% 55 Mio t REO
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* without 20 000 t REO illegal mining 48%

5. Global demand and development of
the demand
2008
Phosphors, Luminescence
9 000 t Others Glass, Polishing, Ceramics
 7%  5% 33 000 – 42 000 t
Metal alloys /  30%
batteries
17 – 23 000 t
 18%
Catalysts
Magnets
20 000 – 25 000 t
21 000 – 27 000 t
20%
 20%
Unit: t REO per year
Source: Compiled by Oeko-Institut from the sources Jefferies 2010, Oakdene Hollins 2010,
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Kingsnorth 2010, GWMG 2010, BGR 2009 and Lynas 2010

6. Rare earths used in consumer electronics
Products Rare earth/Components Amount Unit
Variable-frequency air 100-200 g/unit
conditioning NdFeB 250 g/unit
DVD Player/DVD
ROM/Driver NdFeB 5 g/unit
500 g/unit
E-Bike NdFeB 300 g/unit
15 g/unit
Hard disc drives (HDD) NdFeB 22 g/unit
Magnet 153 g/unit
Loudspeaker NdFeB 50 g/unit
Mobil phone Permanent magnet 5 g/unit
Mobil phone light phosphors 0.006 g/unit
Laptop light phosphors 0.05-0.6 g/unit
LCD TV light phosphors 4.5-6 g/unit
Plasma TV light phosphors 100-125 g/unit
LCD Display light phosphors 1.5-2.5 g/unit
Lanthanum 0.35 g/unit
Cerium 0.46 g/unit
Europium 0.20 g/unit
fluorescent lamp (market Terbium 0.19 g/unit
average) Yttrium 2.87 g/unit
Example: NdFeB: 15g/unit 9765t NdFeB≈3039t REO 6
HDD shipment in 2010: 651 million  13% of global demand of rare earth for magnets

7. Global magnet production
97 % i n China
RE Mining & Concentration
97 % in Chi na
Separation of Ores into Oxides
a lmost 100%
Refining of Oxides to Metals In China
7 5 - 80% in Chi na
Forming Metals into Magnet Alloy Powders 2 0 - 25% in Japan
7 5 - 80% in Chi na
1 7 - 25% in Japan
NdFeB Magnet Man ufacturing
3 - 5% in Europe
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8. Energy efficient lighting
 Most new energy efficient lighting systems contain rare
earths (compact fluorescent lamps, LED, plasma
displays, LCD displays)
 High growth rates due to the ban on classic
incandescent bulbs, dissemination of LEDs and shift
to plasma and LCD displays
 Substitutions are rare.  R & D required for alternative
phosphors with high efficiency and high light quality
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9. Price ($/kg)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
June 2010
Aug 2010
Cerium Oxide
Nov 2010
Dec 2010
Lanthanum Oxide
Neodymium Oxide
Jan 2011
Feb 2011
March 2011
Nd
Apr 2011
Light rare earth elements
May 2011
Ce
La
14th June 2011
Development of prices
Price ($/kg)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Terbium Oxide
Europium Oxide
June 2010
Dysprosium Oxide
Aug 2010
Nov 2010
Dec 2010
Jan 2011
Feb 2011
March 2011
Tb
Apr 2011
Heavy rare earth elements
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May 2011
Eu
Dy
14th June 2011

10. Risks of REE mining without
Environmental Protection Systems
Tailings:
Waste rock (impoundment
storage areas or
stockpiles)
Mining Further
Milling Floatation
processing
(< 1-10% REO) (~60% REO)
Ores with low
concentrate
concentration
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11. Advantages of recycling
Secondary REE potential in Europe.
Lower dependency on foreign material supply.
Build-up of know-how on rare earth processing.
No radioactive waste in processing.
Environmental benefits regarding air emissions.
groundwater protection, acidification, eutrophication
and climate protection.
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12. Developing a recycling scheme
European Material Flow Analysis
Identification
of
stakeholders Identification of initial products to be recycled
European
Development of Pre-treatment & Collection Schemes
Competence
Basic
Network on
research
Rare Earth
Promotion
Installation of Pilot Plants for Recycling / R&D
of re-use
Financial support Improvement of legal framework in EU
Implementation of large scale collection and recycling for initial products
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13. Promotion of sustainable mining
Green technologies call for “green metals”
 There are manifold initiatives for sustainable mining.
 Among them are certification schemes addressing different
problems:
 Environmental, small-scale mining, safety issues, human rights.
 Increasing interest in politics and industry on certified minerals
 Today’s mining companies could be interested in certification
schemes or similar co-operations in order to highlight their
environmental efforts.
 The Analytical Fingerprint is a control instrument if other control
mechanism fail.
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14. Conclusions
 Identification of REE with high relevance: Dysprosium;
Terbium; Yttrium; Lanthanum; Neodymium; Europium;
Praseodymium
 potential shortages in the short-term
 important role in Green Technologies
 Rare Earth Mining and Processing shows high environmental
risks  sustainable mining initiatives like certification schemes
should be integrated into an environmentally sound strategy.
 R & D needed for all applications concerning
 avoidance / substitution
 higher material efficiency
 recycling
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15. Thank you for your attention!
The work which led to the results presented here was
financed by: the Greens/European Free Alliance
in the European Parliament.
More detailed information can be found on the following websites:
www.oeko.de
www.resourcefever.org
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