Rare earth elements

Rare earth elements (also sometimes known as rare earth metals) are naturally occurring chemical elements. Although none of the rare earth elements is particularly rare, they are generally difficult to isolate and this makes them more difficult to obtain than transition metals (and therefore relatively expensive). This is because the rare earth elements all have very similar chemical properties.

Rare earth elements are widely used in electronics such as mobile telephone handsets. The use of rare earth magnets has made it possible to produce ever-smaller components for these. Another example are the very strong permanent magnets needed in wind turbines, which are made using neodymium. Other applications include computers, televisions, fighter jets, nuclear submarines and X-ray machines.

The heavy earth metals are: dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lutetium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, yttrium. The light earth metals are: cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium and samarium.