What the hell are rare earth elements? | Hacker News Reader

What the hell are rare earth elements?

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46 pointsAnon847 comments

Am I the only one who wanted to see a list of names?

Anyway: cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, lanthanum

In table form : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element

Yeah this was more an overview of the industry and how the USA and China diverged on control and production. A really good article. But yeah, a gap of actually listing the elements and a single image depiction doesn’t include full names (just periodic table abbreviations).

From ChatGPT:

Light Rare Earth Elements (LREEs)

  1. Lanthanum (La): camera lenses, hybrid vehicle batteries
  2. Cerium (Ce): glass polishing, catalytic converters
  3. Praseodymium (Pr): magnets, aircraft engines
  4. Neodymium (Nd): powerful magnets (hard drives, EV motors)
  5. Promethium (Pm): radioactive, used in nuclear batteries

Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs)

  6. Samarium (Sm): magnets, nuclear reactors
  7. Europium (Eu): red/blue phosphors in screens
  8. Gadolinium (Gd): MRI contrast, neutron capture
  9. Terbium (Tb): green phosphors, solid-state devices
 10. Dysprosium (Dy): heat-resistant magnets
 11. Holmium (Ho): high-strength magnets
 12. Erbium (Er): fiber optics, lasers
 13. Thulium (Tm): portable X-ray machines
 14. Ytterbium (Yb): stainless steel, lasers
 15. Lutetium (Lu): cancer treatment, PET scans

Other Rare Earths.

16. Scandium (Sc): aerospace alloys, sports equipment. 17. Yttrium (Y): superconductors, LEDs, cancer therapy

The EU defines ‘about’ 30 rare earth elements: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-mater...

Sweden is gamifying local mining through Mineraljakten or Mineral Hunting: https://www.sgu.se/mineraljakten/

Not sure where this is going.

Why is hubspot running a media company ?

This seems to be an HTML version of an email, which is being hosted by Hubspot (probably because the email was sent via them).

This was quite interesting in how Molycorp naively handed it's near monopoly to China in the 1980s.

We've since seen this playbook repeated across multiple industries.

Lynas Rare Earths noted in it's last quarterly report that it has started it's HRE separation circuit and will begin producing Dysprosium this month (May 2025), followed by Terbium in June at it's Malaysian site.

Doesn't really help the US (which is why Lynas are building the Seadrift plant in Texas with DoD funding) as most of that will go to Japan. Lynas interestingly got into the rare earth business in the wake of China's ban on exporting to Japan, so their major customers are the likes of Sumitumo who put up the initial funds for the Malaysian plant.

Last I heard Lynas were asking for more USG funds due to issues with the planned waste water treatment which will blow out the project costs to get working. The actual draft environmental assessment document is an eye-opener as far as the minutia of requirements, despite this being a national security priority.

https://www.listcorp.com/asx/lyc/lynas-rare-earths-limited/n...

https://www.forbes.com.au/news/billionaires/the-800-million-...

https://www.businessdefense.gov/ibr/mceip/news/docs/Lynas-Se...

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