Rare earth is a double-edged sword, becoming the lifeblood of the new energy automobile industry

In 2010, China's total rare earth export quota for the whole year was reduced by nearly 40% compared with 2009, which is unprecedented in the history of China's rare earth export. As soon as this news came out, the global automobile industry, which has relied on China's rare earths for many years, was immediately panicked. For the first time, the simple term rare earth has been frequently mentioned in major international conferences.

What is rare earth, and how powerful is it that can trigger such a strong butterfly effect?

Who is relying on rare earths?

Jack Lifton (Jack Lifton), an independent mineral analyst and strategic metals research expert, called the Toyota Prius Hybrid "the most used rare earth product on the planet." Since China, the world's largest exporter of rare earths, has begun to strictly control the export of rare earths and drastically reduce the export volume, Prius is very likely to face the embarrassing situation of forced suspension of production.

China stated that the export quota for rare earths in 2010 will be reduced to 60% of 2009. Japan’s imports of rare earths from China in October alone dropped 43% from September.

As the world's first hybrid vehicle to be put on the market and currently the most successful, with the largest production and sales volume, Toyota Prius has gained popularity in the European, American and Japanese markets. Last year, the annual sales of a single model exceeded 400,000. Each electric Prius motor requires 1 kg of neodymium (Nd) elements. Each battery requires 10 to 15 kilograms of lanthanum (La) element. Toyota plans to increase the fuel efficiency of the Prius, which experts say will double the demand for rare earth metals. Both neodymium and lanthanum are rare earth metals. The former is used to make high-power, lightweight magnets for electric vehicle engines and wind generators, and the latter is mainly used in vehicle batteries. Under current technical conditions, once the rare earth metals are lacking, Prius can only stop production.

Nicolas Meilhan, a senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan, said in the Reuters Global Automotive Elite Group: “Electric vehicle manufacturing requires rare earths. Any car equipped with an electric engine also needs rare earth metals.”

Rare earths, known as "industrial gold", play an irreplaceable role in military, metallurgy, petrochemical, and new materials. For example, permanent magnet materials made of rare earths have 4 to 10 times higher magnetic properties than ordinary permanent magnet materials. In particular, neodymium-iron-boron permanent magnets are currently found to have the highest magnetic properties. They are called "super magnets" and "modern permanent magnets". The king of magnetism". Because of the unique advantages of rare earths in permanent magnet materials, rare earths have become a key raw material for motors and batteries used in hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, and are irreplaceable and unique in the manufacturing process of new energy vehicles.

稀土是一把双刃剑

中国，真的是独此一家、别无分号的稀土出产国吗？答案是：No！

其实，“稀土”并不像它名字表明的那么稀罕，稀土元素在很多地方都能开采到，只是目前中国的生产成本是最低的、产量是最大的。

日本作为汽车工业和电子工业的大国，自身的稀土资源却十分匮乏。发展电子和新能源汽车所需的稀土主要靠进口供给。据日本经济贸易和产业省的数据报道，中国稀土供应占全球的97%，日本一家就从中国进口了总出口量的89%，可以说，日本稀土供应的命脉完全掌握在中国手里。所以当中国开始控制稀土出口时，丰田普锐斯不得不想办法应对核心资源供应不足的问题。

彭博社报道说丰田成立了一支特别任务小组，负责寻找可替代资源以及开发稀土金属的回收利用技术。丰田发言人也证实了这一消息。事实上，丰田制造的混合动力车集合了众多供应商的产品技术，在解决稀土金属稀缺的问题上，其他公司的研究同样可以给汽车制造商带来帮助。

日本第三大铜生产商三菱物资公司(Mitsubishi Materials Corp)打算从2014年开始推出一项商业化服务，即从废旧磁铁中回收稀土金属。另外，日本工程师就宣布正在开发一种新型的用于混合动力车的电机，这种电机就不需要从中国进口的稀土。日本的新能源和工业技术开发组织称已经开发出电机用的铁基磁性元件，研究机构声称新的磁铁性能与采用稀土的磁铁相同。他们甚至称，新电机的成本仅是采用稀土电机的十分之一。

稀土限制出口令一发布，就有专家认为，在充足的原料供应下，中国的新能源汽车很可能在不久以后就会领先于其他国家。

但如果简单的认为只要垄断了稀土供应就能把住新能源汽车发展的命门，就能为国内新能源汽车的发展创造出一个绝对优势的话，这就是绝对的偏见了。有研究报告指出，实际上，日本现有的稀土储藏量已经足够他们使用十年，但他们依然毫不犹豫地加入到对中国政府出口限令施压的行列。

In fact, China's rare earths account for only one-third of the global reserves, while the United States and Europe also store large amounts of rare earths, but they "snow" them. China exports a large amount of rare earths but has never had the right to set prices. There are a series of problems such as extensive development methods and serious waste of resources. In particular, some companies have weak environmental protection awareness and serious environmental pollution during the mining process. Domestic experts believe that after long-term export of rare earths at low prices without considering environmental costs, it is only natural for China to start restricting rare earth exports.

What is rare earth?

Rare earth refers to the lanthanides in the periodic table of chemical elements. Lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), lutetium (Lu), as well as two elements closely related to the 15 elements of the lanthanide series, scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y) total 17 These elements are collectively referred to as rare earth elements (Rare Earth). Referred to as rare earth (RE or R).