The Australian mining company plans to offer separated dysprosium and terbium from 2025. Production of heavy rare earths so far highly concentrated geographically.
Australian rare earth specialist Lynas will expand its product portfolio to include dysprosium and terbium from 2025. Both representatives of the heavy rare earths are used, among other things, to increase the performance of permanent magnets such as those in wind turbines. Until now, the heavy rare earths extracted from Lynas-operated Mount Weld mine in Australia have only been sold as a compound. The company added that the separation of dysprosium and terbium will take place in the company’s processing plant in Malaysia.
China dominates the production of heavy rare earths, which are significantly rarer and, therefore, more expensive than their “light” counterparts, such as neodymium. Production is highly concentrated and largely limited to certain regions in southern China and neighboring Myanmar. The German Mineral Resources Agency DERA (PDF) classified the supply situation as critical in 2011 already.
Photo: TRADIUM GmbH
