2023-04-30 17:16:31
In recent years we hear more and more often regarding the rare earths with strange names: Scandium ( Sc ), Yttrium ( Y ), Lanthanum ( La ), Demetry ( Ce ), Neodymium ( Nd ), Europium ( Eu ), Terbium ( Tb ) , Holmium ( Ho ), Erbium ( Er ), Thulium ( Tm ) and others. These are a total of 17 types of rare metals, which, due to their characteristics, are essential for today’s and future technologies and for “green transition”. In order to meet the climate targets set for 2045, there is no alternative to rare earths. Up to three kilograms of these rare metals are found in an electric car. Neither photovoltaic systems, nor microchips, would work without the rare earths. Wind turbines wouldn’t turn without lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, silicon and many other rare metals. Up to 300 kg are required to operate an offshore wind turbine.
But 60% of the world’s production of rare earths comes from China, with 44 million tons. It is followed by Vietnam (22 million tons) and Brazil (22 million tons).
“Black Swan”
Escalation of tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan or an embargo on rare earths would have serious consequences for the European and global economy. A “black swan” that should not be ignored, for the investor.
The Chinese government is once once more raising the specter of an embargo on rare earths, adding fuel to the fire. As Eric Galiek, president of Valquant Expertise, says, “Taiwan will be the next episode of geopolitical tension, and the confrontation between China and the United States on the semiconductor front – is inevitable.”
The economic stakes are of course high, both for the Western world – for which China remains “the factory of the world” – and for China itself, which faces a rapid decline in its growth and demographic challenges.
This fact makes Europe increasingly dependent. Earlier this year, there were cheers over the discovery of a rare earth deposit in Sweden with a capacity of over one million tonnes. Although it is the largest such deposit in Europe to date, it is unlikely to be enough to cover Europe’s energy transition and independence. “Rare earths are particularly important for the energy transition,” says Martin Erdmann, a raw materials expert at the Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources in Hanover. “Because of the environmental problems in rare earth mining, it has not been attractive for other countries to get involved in production. And people just relied heavily on raw materials coming from China. With the current geopolitical political tensions, you saw that such dependencies can be very critical,” adds Erdmann.
Recycling wind turbines and smartphones
There are many research programs currently dealing with how to obtain these precious metals, which will soon become the new “fuel” of the technological-green revolution. Although rare earths are difficult to recycle, there are still some steps that need to be taken. in this field,” says Erdmann. “There are many research programs currently dealing with how rare earths can be recovered. However, this requires higher returns. These will not be completed for at least 10 years, when the first generation of the largest wind turbines will be returned for recycling.” With the growing need for a transition to clean energy, recycling will also become increasingly important. But there is a huge reservoir of rare earths, which many have not thought regarding: For example, we can find rare earths in smartphones, touch screens, computer hard drives, but also in optical fibers and lasers and in many medical devices, even batteries for electric cars. But mainly, in the useless, old ones mobile phones. In them are the metals – and still are – necessary for the electronics industry in the production of new smartphones. Recycling of old mobiles might be a valid alternative to be able to obtain the famous rare earths. A device can contain more than 60 different metals, including gold.
Tons of cell phones
Of course, countless tons of old smartphones are needed to mine large quantities of rare earths. According to a study by “Remedia’s E-waste Lab”, in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan, the average composition of a mobile phone is: 9 grams of copper, 11 grams of iron, 250 milligrams of silver, 24 milligrams of gold, 9 milligrams of palladium, 65 grams of plastic and one gram of rare earths. The cell phone’s lithium battery contains 3.5 grams of cobalt and one gram of rare earths.
Therefore, we can recover 2.7 kg of valuable and recyclable materials for every ton of smartphones. Recovering these valuable materials and rare metals from old mobile phones is the goal of the ‘Portent’ project, coordinated by the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Enea). A sustainable project if you consider that only in 2020 the waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Italy exceeded 78 thousand tons.
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