[Rockhounds] A Mysterious Cosmic Metal May Solve The Rare Earths Crisis

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Rare earth metals are set to take center stage in the “green revolution” as
they provide high-performance magnets used in renewable infrastructure like
wind turbines, high-tech appliances, and electric cars. However, getting
our hands on these much-sought-after materials is not always easy.
Fortunately, there might be a solution in the form of a mysterious metal
usually cooked up in space.

Despite their name, rare earth metals are not exactly rare, but they’re
scattered across Earth’s crust in relatively low concentrations. Mining
can, therefore, be tricky and entail its own environmental hazards
<https://e360.yale.edu/features/boom_in_mining_rare_earths_poses_mounting_toxic_risks>
.

As it stands, China dominates the market, accounting for around 81 percent
of rare earths sourced worldwide in 2017. They have already weighed up
a possible
export ban
<https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Supply-Chain/China-weighs-export-ban-for-rare-earth-magnet-tech>
for
rare earth metals in response to geopolitical tensions with the US, meaning
the future of their supply to some regions is uncertain.

The US and other parts of the world are looking to compete. For instance,
California has the Mountain Pass mine
<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rare-earth-mining-renewable-energy-future>,
the only rare earth mining and processing facility in the US. Nevertheless,
there’s mounting interest in alternative options.

“Rare earth deposits exist elsewhere, but the mining operations are highly
disruptive: you have to extract a huge amount of material to get a small
volume of rare earths. Between the environmental impacts, and the heavy
reliance on China, there’s been an urgent search for alternative materials
that do not require rare earths,” Professor Lindsay Greer, from Cambridge
University's Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, said in a
statement
<https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/new-approach-to-cosmic-magnet-manufacturing-could-reduce-reliance-on-rare-earths-in-low-carbon>in
October 2022.

Back in 2022, Professor Greer and her team stumbled across a possible
answer: tetrataenite, an iron-nickel alloy that contains many of the
magnetic properties found in rare earth metals.

https://www.iflscience.com/a-mysterious-cosmic-metal-may-solve-the-rare-earths-crisis-70381