Prices for rare earth metals may vary

In the near term prices for rare earth

metals (REM) in Russia can change. To such conclusion analysts of the market

after receiving the news about the emergence of a new domestic operator

the sector, which will produce about 100 tons of rare earth metals per year.

It is a joint project of CJSC Dalur (Russia, Kurgan region, Dalmatovsky

district) and JSC «Hydrometallurgical plant» (Stavropol territory, Lermontov).

The first of the above companies will extract rare earth metals from

products leaching in their own factory for the extraction of uranium,

and the second is to carry out subsequent processing.

In the world annually produces about 100 thousand tons of rare earth

metals, 95% of whom were the products of Chinese manufacturers. Using

the benefits of a monopoly on the market, the PRC government has been making several resource-dependent

States «dictatorship», quaterra exports and adjusting for the cost of REM

its sole discretion.

About the fact that the market for rare earth metals coming

changes and market experts began in early February when the Government

The Russian Federation has approved the program of Ministry of industry regarding the production

REM. Under the terms of this document, in projects for the extraction and processing of rare earth

items in the next 7 years will be invested 147 billion, part of

which (23,4 billion) — will be transferred from the state budget. As

confirmation of the assumptions of analysts about future changes in the specialized media

there is another news: this week (February 19) at JSC Dalur started operation

new equipment to extract rare earth from the waste of uranium ore (as

associated production). Although the volume of production, which management

the company has plans to release its capacity on the global scale very

modest (less than 1%), the fact of appearance of the «first signs» in the sector — a sure sign

the reality of the intentions of the Russian government to contribute to the revival of rare earth

industry in the country.

Rare earth metals are 17 elements: gadolinium

(Gd), holmium (Ho), dysprosium (Dy), europium (Eu), ytterbium (Yb), yttrium (Y), lanthanum

(La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm) scandium

(Sc) terbium (Tb), thulium™, cerium (Ce) and erbium (Er). Despite its «exotic»

the name, most of the REE are widely distributed in the earth’s crust (for example, tungsten

found 165 times less). However, due to the complex production and due to the narrow

the specific application rates for these products are kept at a very high level (for example,

the average cost of EU over the past two years has never fallen below $ 4500

dollars per kilogram).

Basically REM is used in optoelectronics, atomic

technology, chemical industry, electronics, instrumentation,

metallurgy (the production of special steels and the manufacture of heavy duty magnets) and

in other industries.