Some Trends of the World Ree Market and Prospects for Russia

Abstract

The paper presents a review of some trends observed on the world market of rare-earth elements (REE). This review takes into account actual changes in the commercial and industrial policy of China and the current trends of REE consumption. Main characteristics of the modern REE markets are considered. The paper provides an assessment of world production volumes, world trade and prices. The article describes the REE market behavior in 2000–2020 and provides a forecast of main indicators and prices up to 2020. It contains a description of current world REE resources, production and trade over the main countries. In addition, the prices and the main buyers of REE are specified indicating the forecast of consumption. The prospects of the Russian REE market are estimated taking into account the «Development of the Rare and Rare-Earth Elements Industry» subprogram implemented as part of the State Program of the Russian Federation «Industry Development and Competitiveness Improvement». The purpose of the subprogram is to create a competitive rare-earth industry of an integrated production cycle in the Russian Federation in order to satisfy the needs of the domestic defense industry complex, civil industries and enter the foreign markets. It is noted that this subprogram should be upgraded with regard to changes in the market conditions and development of rare-earth elements production in the Russian Federation including by means of statutory, non-tariff and technical regulation. Loparite and apatite will remain the main sources of rare-earth elements as raw materials for industrial processing in Russia in the near future, while REE production from apatite will increase. It is emphasized that the prospects of REE development in Russia consist not so much in increasing the primary production as in establishing new plants consuming rare-earth products.

Prospective industrial complexes in the Russian Arctic: focus on rare-earth metals

“…These include the high level of environmental risks, the low level of economic efficiency of REM projects, the declarative nature of legal regulation, and low indicators of domestic demand for rare-earth products [16][17][18][19]. Meanwhile, despite of all the difficulties, national researchers agree that the development of rare-earth metal industry is essential to ensure the sustainable development of hightech industries [20]. Given the complicity of the organization of rare-earth metal industrial complexes, questions related to reliable prospects for their creation and further development remain open.…”

Application of silica-based sorbents to extraction of rare earth elements from loparite processing products

“…of REE oxides, mainly of the cerium group [1]. Processing of the Lovozero deposit loparite ores (Murmansk, Russia) is carried out at the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant [2]. According to the industrially mastered chlorine technology, niobium, titanium and tantalum compounds are first isolated, and then a collective carbonate concentrate of REE is isolated as well [3].…”

“…The advantage of loparite is the relatively low content of actinides in it: the total activity of the commercial REE concentrate does not exceed 1000 Bq/kg [4]. Afterpurification, group separation, isolation of individual oxides by extraction methods have been developed at different times at the Irtysh Chemical-Metallurgical Plant (Kazakhstan) [1,5], the Sillamae Plant (Estonia) [5][6], Chemical and Metallurgical Experimental Workshop (Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Russia) [2], at the moment -Skygrad Group of Companies (Russia) [2,7].…”