Metals for the New Economy

The deployment of renewables and electric vehicles is expected to skyrocket as the world strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These low-carbon technologies currently rely on a handful of key metals, some of which have been little-used to date. This raises questions over whether enough of these materials can be mined to ensure a large-scale rollout. Others are concerned that bottlenecks could appear, as metal output rises to meet demand, or that the environmental impacts of mining could undermine carbon savings elsewhere.  

Rare-earth metals, also known as rare-earth elements (REEs), are a group of 17 chemically similar elements. Each has unique properties, making them important components for a range of technologies from low-energy lighting and catalytic converters to the magnets used in wind turbines, EVs and computer hard-drives. Neodymium and praseodymium, known together as “NdPr”, which are used in the magnets of electric motors, have particularly been in the news lately, due to rising demand and prices.  

Rare earths-bearing minerals monazite and xenotime occur in many of Australia’s heavy mineral sand deposits and, up until the mid-1990s, monazite was produced from them and exported, mainly to Europe. Following environmental issues in France relating to the disposal of toxic and radioactive waste generated in the processing of monazite, the French plant was closed. A second major obstacle to continued processing of monazite was the high cost of disposing of thorium produced during the process. France’s monazite imports stopped immediately causing Australian mine production to cease. Subsequently, monazite generated by heavy mineral sand mining was returned to the mine.

In recent developments, some companies are planning to restart Australian REE production from mineral sands deposits. Iluka Resources Ltd began a prefeasibility study in 2018 on the Wim 100 deposit near Horsham in Victoria. Also near Horsham, WIM Resources Pty Ltd announced its intention to produce an REE concentrate in conjunction with heavy mineral sand products from its Avonbank project in Victoria.

Currently, REE occurring in heavy mineral sand resources make up around 6% of Australia’s inventory of REE resources.