Rare-earth elements discovered on the Pacific seabed

Earlier this month the British journal Nature Geoscience published an article revealing the discovery of rare earth mineral deposits by Japanese scientists on the Pacific Ocean seabed. The scientists estimate this discovery "could provide one-fifth of the current annual world consumption" of rare earth elements, which include neodymium used in EV motor magnets, lanthanum used in NiMH EV batteries, dysprosium, gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and the metal yttrium, discovered at numerous sites throughout the eastern South and central North Pacific.

 

These elements are specific in their applications, used in green energy-technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines, LED lighting and electric vehicles. The discovery could have a significant effect on these industries if the deposits can be "readily recovered from the mud by simple acid leaching" as the scientists suggest. Dysprosium, for example, can readily substitute neodymium in neodymium-iron-boron magnets to increase the strength of the coercive field for hybrid drive-motors, whilst a terbium zirconium oxide alloy is used to stabilize crystals within fuel cells at elevated temperatures.

 

The potential to disrupt China's near-monopoly on the EV component market lies on the sea floor as Beijing's +90% share of current rare-element resources is challenged by the new findings, although political confrontation may ensue as the deposits lie in international waters.

 

 

Yet the ecological dispute continues; is gaining large mineral quantities for green technologies worth dredging up the Pacific Ocean floor for? To hedge its bets, the EV industry is developing motor magnets that use nano-materials that employ less neodymium and increasing the use of AC asynchronous motors - basically rotating transformers invented by Tesla in 1900 - that use no rare earths at all. Indeed, in a nice resonance, the Tesla car uses them, not just forklifts and several other types of EV. Anyway, there are other sources of rare earths opening up outside China and lithium traction batteries are replacing the lanthanum dependent NiMH batteries in hybrids. Even the plug in Prius uses Li-ion and there are multiple sources of lithium and the other elements used in Li batteries. Stop worrying.

 

For more attend Electric Vehicles Land Sea Air USA 2012.

 

Also read Electric Vehicle Traction Batteries 2011-2021 and Hybrid and Pure Electric Cars 2011-2021 .