Demand for rare earths · AditNow Community

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Dolcoathguy
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

Other than South Crofty, where are the other sites in the UK?
I suspect any site that is potentially economic has been surveyed already.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11584229

Is it safe to come out of the bunker yet?

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Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

It's a curious little problem this, isn't it?

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

I seem to recall from the North Pennine Fluorite book that the UV response of the Teesdale and Weardale spar is caused by small amounts of rare earths like Ytterbium in the crystal matrix, but whether there's enough to make extraction worthwhile is a different matter!

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!

John Mason
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Rare-earth minerals like synchysite and xenotime are widespread in small veins cutting brittle lithologies (e.g. ashflow tuffs, dolerite sills and dykes) in the slate-belt of North Wales, but generally the quantities are academic!

Nodules of monazite - a rare-earth phosphate - are common in certain Ordovician sedimentary rocks in Wales, and are concentrated in the rivers draining such areas, but again this represents a pretty low-grade resource.

Cheers - John

Imageo
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

Rare earths is a bit of a misnomer because they're locally quite common. Demand is low and prices carefully controlled which creates an artificially high value in most cases. The following link may be of interest:

http://www.lynascorp.com/page.asp?category_id=2&page_id=3

Cheers

I'm a Geo

'There's a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness.'

Dolcoathguy
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

14 years ago

Interesting site - not often economically viable to mine despite being abundant seems to be the main conclusion.

As demand is increasing hopefully this means increased pressure to re-open old mines, or start new ones in areas outside china.

Although I suspect Chinese mining companies will be keen to gain a controlling interest in many of these ventures if they are able.

Is it safe to come out of the bunker yet?

AR
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

14 years ago

This popped up on the tech blog site The Register today: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/08/rare_metals_china/ , the author mentions he went into a Derbyshire mine to see what was there, wonder which one it was? From what I know of the South Pennine orefield, I doubt he'd have found much containing lanthanides.....

Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!