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Rare Earths: Market Disruption, Innovation, and Global Supply Chains

Rare Earths: Market Disruption, Innovation, and Global Supply Chains Rare earths, sometimes called the vitamins of modern materials, captured public attention when their prices increased more than tenfold in 2010 and 2011. As prices fell between 2011 and 2016, rare earths receded from public view, but less visibly, they became a major focus of innovative activity in companies, government laboratories, and universities. Geoscientists worked to better understand the resource base and improve our knowledge about mineral deposits that can be mines in the future. Process engineers carried out research that is making primary production and recycling more efficient. Materials scientists and engineers searched for substitutes that require fewer or no rare earths while providing properties comparable or superior to those of existing materials. As a result, even though global supply chains are not significantly different now than they were before the market disruption, the innovative activity motivated by the disruption will likely have far-reaching, if unpredictable, consequences for supply chains of rare earths in the future. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Annual Review of Environment and Resources Annual Reviews

Rare Earths: Market Disruption, Innovation, and Global Supply Chains

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Publisher
Annual Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved
ISSN
1543-5938
eISSN
1545-2050
DOI
10.1146/annurev-environ-110615-085700
Publisher site
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Abstract

Rare earths, sometimes called the vitamins of modern materials, captured public attention when their prices increased more than tenfold in 2010 and 2011. As prices fell between 2011 and 2016, rare earths receded from public view, but less visibly, they became a major focus of innovative activity in companies, government laboratories, and universities. Geoscientists worked to better understand the resource base and improve our knowledge about mineral deposits that can be mines in the future. Process engineers carried out research that is making primary production and recycling more efficient. Materials scientists and engineers searched for substitutes that require fewer or no rare earths while providing properties comparable or superior to those of existing materials. As a result, even though global supply chains are not significantly different now than they were before the market disruption, the innovative activity motivated by the disruption will likely have far-reaching, if unpredictable, consequences for supply chains of rare earths in the future.

Journal

Annual Review of Environment and Resources – Annual Reviews

Published: Oct 17, 2016

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