China's Rare Earth Elements Industry - Foreign Military Studies Office

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Tail Warning Function – A defensive system that uses a pulsed Doppler radarto detect missiles approaching the aircraft from behind and dispenses defensivecountermeasures to defeat the attack by jamming them with electronic countermeasures (ECM).Tailings – The materials left over after the process of separating the valuablefraction from the worthless fraction of an ore.*Terbium – A rare earth element used in energy efficient fluorescent lamps.There are various terbium metal alloys that provide metallic films for magnetooptic data recording.Theoretical physics – The description of natural phenomena in mathematicalform.Thorium – A soft silvery-white tetravalent radioactive metallic element, isotope232, that is used as a power source in nuclear reactors. Thorium can be found inmonazite and, in smaller quantities, other minerals.*Thulium – the rarest of the rare earth elements. Its chemistry is similar to that ofYttrium. Due to its unique photographic properties, Thulium is used in sensitiveX-ray phosphors to reduce X-ray exposure.Traveling Wave Tube (TWT) – an electronic device used to amplify radiofrequency signals to a higher power.Ytterbia - A colorless compound (Yb 2 O 3 ) that is used in certain alloys andceramics.*Ytterbium – A rare earth element that resembles Yttrium in broad chemicalbehavior. When subject to high stresses, the electrical resistance of the metalincreases by an order of magnitude. Therefore, ytterbium is used in stressgauges to monitor ground deformations caused, for example, by earthquakes orunderground explosions.*Yttrium – A rare earth element. Almost every vehicle on the road containsyttrium based materials that improve the fuel efficiency of the engine. Anotherimportant use of yttrium is in microwave communication devices. Yttrium- Iron-Garnets (YIG) are used as resonators in frequency meters, magnetic fieldmeasurement devices, tunable transistors and Gunn oscillators. Yttrium goes intolaser crystals specific to spectral characteristics for high-performancecommunication systems.34
Appendix AUses and Sources of the Rare Earth ElementsLa Lanthanum 57Uses: Lanthanum is strategically important due to its use as a catalyst to createfuel for vehicles and aircraft. It is also used in alloys needed as part of fuel cellsand batteries. Lanthanum is the key to modifying glass crystal structure and therefractive index, which makes it easier for optical lens designers to create theirlenses. Lanthanum is used in night vision instruments. Lanthanum is also usedas a compound in carbon arc lamps, color television sets, cigarette lighter flints,and optical fibers. It’s phosphors are used in X-ray films and certain lasers tohelp reduce the dose of radiation to patients by up to 75%. There is currentinterest in hydrogen sponge alloys containing lanthanum. These alloys take up to400 times their own volume of hydrogen gas, and the process is reversible. Eachtime they take up gas, heat energy is released. Hence, these alloys havepossibilities in an energy conservation system.Abundance earth’s crust: 3.9x10 1 milligrams per kilogram.Abundance Ocean: 3.4x10 -6 milligrams per literSources: Found in rare-earth minerals such as cerite, monazite, andbastnaesite. Lanthanum and other rare earths have become more available inrecent years. The metal can be produced by reducing the anhydrous fluoride withcalcium.Ce Cerium 58Uses: Cerium has many uses. It is used for catalytic converters in automobiles toreduce emissions. It is used as a catalyst in petroleum refining and inmetallurgical and nuclear applications. As an oxide, it is used in glass polishingagents. Along with other rare earths, cerium is used in carbon-arc lighting,especially in the motion picture industry. It is also used in self cleaning ovens. Aspart of a Mischmetal, it is used to manufacture pyrophoric alloys for cigarettelighters. A cerium based conversion coating is non corrosive and may havesignificant military applications.Abundance earth’s crust: 6.65x10 1 milligrams per kilogramAbundance Ocean: 1.2x10 -6 milligrams per literSources: Cerium is the most abundant rare-earth metal. It is found in allanite(aka: orthite), monazite, bastnasite, cerite, and smarskite. Monazite andbastnasite are most predominant. There are large deposits of monazite on thebeaches of Travancore, India, and in Brazilian river sands. Alanite can be foundin the western United States. Bastnaesite is in Southern California.Pr Praseodymium 59Uses: Praseodymium is used as an alloying agent with magnesium to createhigh-strength metals used in aircraft engines. It is also used in a Misch metalcompound (5%) for the flints in lighters. Praseodymium forms the core of carbonarc lighting, used in the motion picture industry. It is added to fiber optic cables35
Page 1 and 2: China’s Rare Earth Elements Indus
Page 3 and 4: IntroductionChina controls approxim
Page 5 and 6: The bastnaesite contains the rare e
Page 7 and 8: processes.projects, with priority g
Page 9 and 10: The lab primarily focuses on:• Ra
Page 11 and 12: Much earlier, in 1927, Ding Daoheng
Page 13 and 14: was reviewed by the U.S. government
Page 15 and 16: The question arises as to why China
Page 17 and 18: daily living, but also contaminates
Page 19 and 20: According to Wang Caifeng, in 2008
Page 21 and 22: international price of key rare ear
Page 23 and 24: On 10 December 2008, Baotou Steel R
Page 25 and 26: and support leading domestic produc
Page 27 and 28: In 2007, Dudley Kingsnorth put toge
Page 29 and 30: Because of the growing academic gap
Page 31 and 32: world. Europium is also used in flu
Page 33: Nonferrous metals - Anything (metal
Page 37 and 38: cobalt permanent magnet motors to d
Page 39 and 40: Tm Thulium 69Uses: Thulium is the r
Page 41 and 42: Appendix BThe Discovery of Each Rar

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