The European Union (EU) has been actively engaged in the global competition to secure critical minerals and rare earth elements. Despite the aggressive competition worldwide, the EU's efforts to scan every nook and cranny of the globe for these essential components have been relentless. However, the ripple effect of such acquisitions and their potential impact on the world has posed significant challenges, akin to navigating a net-zero-driven project through back-to-back speed breakers.
Image Source: UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)
The U.S. Geological Survey's release "Going Critical" clarified, "REEs are necessary components of more than 200 products across a wide range of applications, especially high-tech consumer products, such as cellular telephones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicles, and flat-screen monitors and televisions. Significant defence applications include electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems. Although the amount of REE used in a product may not be a significant part of that product by weight, value, or volume, the REE can be necessary for the device to function. For example, magnets made of REE often represent only a small fraction of the total weight, but without them, the spindle motors and voice coils of desktops and laptops would not be possible."
According to a publication by Mighty Earth, the production of electric vehicles, where rare earth elements are necessity, has surged in recent years, from a mere 0.5 million cars sold in 2015 to a staggering 16.6 million in 2024. This represents a 3,200 per cent increase in electric car sales. Among all new cars sold in 2022, electric vehicles accounted for approximately 14 per cent, a significant rise from 5 per cent in 2020. With experts predicting that a quarter of all new car sales will be electric by 2030, the need for critical minerals and rare earth elements is more pressing than ever.
The rare earth elements (REE) are seventeen metallic elements namely Yttrium (Y), Lanthanum (La), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Promethium (Pm), Samarium (Sm), Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm), Ytterbium (Yb), Lutetium (Lu), and Scandium (Sc).
The chemical composition of bauxite residue has been analysed in studies with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), as well as with aqua regia digestion and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The principal rare earth elements (REEs) present are cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, scandium, and samarium, with a total concentration of about 0.03 weight percentage.
As many are fighting hard to acquire the minerals and elements, EU blocs are scanning across globe to stay afloat in the competition. China and African and Latin American countries have considerable reserves, which makes them the target of every buyer country. China is a distinct destination in this regard at present, producing over 60 per cent of the global rare earth elements and processing nearly 90 per cent of them.
"In 1993, 38 per cent of world production of REEs was in China, 33 per cent was in the United States, 12 per cent was in Australia, and 5 per cent each was in Malaysia and India. Several other countries, including Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, made up the remainder. However, in 2008, China accounted for more than 90 per cent of world production of REEs, and by 2011, China accounted for 97 per cent of world production. Beginning in 1990 and beyond, supplies of REEs became an issue as the Government of China began to change the amount of REEs that it allowed to be produced and exported. The Chinese Government also began to limit the number of Chinese and Sino-foreign joint-venture companies that could export REEs from China."
These rare earth elements are especially valued for magnetic properties, as when unpaired electrons are aligned, magnetic fields are generated so they spin in the same direction. The orbital electron arrangement of these elements possesses many unpaired electrons, meaning that the rare earth materials can store large amounts of magnetic energy.
Labelled as the 'vitamins of modern society', rare earth elements (REEs) are indispensable in a wide range of applications. They are used in satellites, lasers, cameras, telescope lenses, pacemakers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning systems, and many more. Their unique properties make them a crucial component in these technologies, underlining the significant role of REEs in modern society.
While refining bauxite into alumina through the Bayer process, critical minerals can be extracted as y-products, including gallium, scandium, lithium, cobalt, titanium, and rare earth elements (REE).
Some of the rare earth elements have luminescent properties, which means that they emit light when spurred by electromagnetic radiation. These elements are utilised as phosphors (light-emitting substances) in energy-efficient sources of light, for example, in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and compact fluorescent light bulbs.
However, "It's tricky [for the EU] if the supply is controlled by other countries," Maarten Koese, a critical minerals researcher at Leiden University, shared with the media.
Whereas, according to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), habitat destruction, contamination and pollution of soil and water, fresh-water usage and subsequent fresh-water scarcity, among others, also restrict the free flow of bauxite mining and aluminium production. Additionally, there are tailings, the waste remnants after extracting valuable minerals from an ore during mining. They are fine-grained, slurry-like, and are stored in large impoundments or tailings dams. Tailings retain residual chemicals, minerals, and other by-products of the mining procedure, like crushed rocks and processing chemicals.
"We have for too long considered that decarbonising meant relocating outside of the EU, and this was wrong," Thierry Breton, the former European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, said last year. So, now, the ending question hangs: Can the EU find a viable alternative to expanding domestic mining operations?
