Highlights
- The 2011 rare earth elements price surge triggered increased global research and investment across the REE supply chain.
- China dominates REE research output, followed by the United States, with key trends emerging in extraction, separation, metallization, and magnet technologies.
- A recent study reveals significant growth in patents and publications for most REE supply chain segments after the 2011 price spike.
A price surge involving rare earth elements (REE) in 2011 pressured the market to embrace more research, and associated investment, part of the response to discover superior technologies and alternative sources, all of course to evolve a more resilient supply chain.
In 2011 REE prices significantly surged in 2011, primarily due to China drastically reducing its export quotas for rare earth elements, leading to a tight supply and a sharp price increase in the global market; this period is often referred to as the "rare earth crisis" of 2010-2011.
Some key points about the 2011 rare earth price surge:
- China's export restrictions:
The main driver of the price spike was China's decision to significantly cut its export quotas for rare earth metals, effectively controlling the majority of the global supply.
- High demand:
Growing demand for rare earth metals used in various high-tech applications like smartphones, hybrid cars, and wind turbines further contributed to the price surge.
- Price increases across different rare earths
Prices for various rare earth elements like neodymium, samarium, and dysprosium saw significant increases.
A Recent Paper on R&D trends
Recently Sameer Kulkarni, PhD, at Purdue University (opens in a new tab) and colleagues reviewed this change in the REE research landscape (including publications and patents) prior to, and after the REE price spike via searchers of the Web of Science and PatSnap databases.
The group of authors divided the REE supply chain into four segments
- Extraction and beneficiation
- Separation
- Metallization
- Magnets
Results demonstrate that the number of patents and publications for most REE supply chain segments markedly increased after that price surge back in 2011.
However, an exception was patent activity for bonded magnets.
What countries are leading the research investment?
China, first and foremost, stood out as the top country for different REE research topics according to the authors in their article published in SSRN. Coming in second next to China is the United States.
In this paper the authors both tabulate the results of top countries by output of research and development into REE while also compiling key research trends for each supply chain segment cited above.
Some Research Trends to Note
Of notable activity include gravity separation and magnetic separation as apparent major research trends for REE extraction and beneficiation. When looking at REE separation, solvent extraction continues to be heavily investigated, however more research focus turns to ion exchange/adsorption and membrane separation.
Kulkarni and colleagues report that contrary to what many believe, metallothermic reduction (a reaction that uses a reactive metal to produce metals, alloys, nonmetal elements, and composites from feed materials like oxides or chloride) emerged as the most discussed technology for REE metallization over molten salt electrolysis (opens in a new tab). Dual alloy methods (a technique for creating sintered magnets with two different magnetic powders) and gap magnets have flourished and become the prime topics for REE magnet research.
See the source (opens in a new tab).
Daniel
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