10 Top Intriguing Rare Earth Element Facts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
“As if classified as a top-secret government project, the group of metals known as the rare earth was so shrouded in complexity that it took 151 years from the discovery of the first rare-earth element in 1794, for the final element to be discovered in 1945. In fact, ion-exchange separation technology developed as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to produce enriched uranium included production of the rare-earth elements…” – James Hedrick
The REEHandbook.com team has been working around the clock under Sid Goldberg for the last month and a half as we prepare to kick off this new site in time for the holidays. Personally, I think it’s exciting and appropriate to have the television Director from the Popular Mechanics for Kids series working on clarifying fact vs fiction. The above is part of the introduction and as part of the countdown for launch to our guide to rare earth elements, thought I would provide you with a quick 10 Intriguing Rare Earth Element Facts that I pulled from a read through of the REEHandbook:
1.More abundant in the Moon than on Earth, Scandium due to being high-strength & lightweight used is used in scandium-aluminum airframes for Russian MiG-21 and MiG-29 fighter jets.
2.Neodymium-iron-boron (Nd2Fe14B) high-strength permanent magnets are the strongest in the world, and when a thumbnail size, high-strength NdFeB magnet is placed on a refrigerator it cannot be removed by hand…intriguingly, Nd:YAG lasers are used to remove tattoos.
3.Combining yttrium with barium, copper and oxygen creates a superconductor strong enough to levitate a train and yttrium-iron garnets (YIG) are used in the electronic components for missile defense systems.
4.Lanthanum oxide is used in the manufacture of infrared-absorbing glass used in night vision goggles and is used to reduce blood levels of phosphate in patients with kidney disease.
5.The primary use of praseodymium is to combine it with neodymium magnets and intriguingly when mixed with nickel PrNi5 cools to within one thousandth of a degree of absolute zero, -273.15 °C -- the point where every molecule stops moving.
6.The primary use of europium is in phosphors used in televisions (reddish-orange), used in anti-counterfeiting fluorescent phosphors in Euro banknotes -- europium absorbs neutrons in fast breeder nuclear reactors to control the fission process.
7.Terbium is the first member of the heavy-group rare-earth element (HREE) for having one paired-electron (LREEs have no paired electrons) and the discoverer of terbium Swedish chemist, Carl Gustav Mosander, has a recoilless rifle named after him called the Carl Gustav m48. In the REEHandbook, our editor James Hedrick discusses Terbium in the “great rare-earth sting”…sounds like a blog...
8.As the second member of the heavy-group rare-earth elements (HREE), dysprosium has two paired electrons giving it the ability to detect radiation, improve permanent magnets, store digital data, precisely aim lasers, emit sonar pings, or glow in the dark. Strontium Magnesium Aluminate ((MgSrAl10O17) ‘doped with europium and dysprosium’ is used to make “Kryptonite”, a long-persistance phosphorescent material that glows bright green in the dark for up to 12 hours.
9.Promethium, the last of the rare-earth elements to be discovered over a 151 year mission, was the most elusive. Luminous promethium range-marks are used in the targeting sights of shoulder-fired missiles and promethium is used in nuclear powered batteries that have a useful life of five years.
10.“Two hafniums don’t make a holmium.” Holmium is the third member of the heavy rare-earth elements (HREE) and has three electron pairs that give it the ability to be the leading medical laser, detect objects based on their vibrational signal, defeat infrared heat-seeking missiles, and generate high-energy laser pulses. For instance, Laser-based Ho:YAG is used in infrared countermeasure (IRCM) systems to confuse shoulder-launched, infrared “heat-seeking” missiles firing at civilian jets and helicopters.
And on that note, I will get back to working on whose on what panel for the Technology Metals Summit 2012, which we will announce in a news release on Thursday, next week.
Waiting to hear about the remaining Rusty Ridge Assays for Hole #2.....
sbaker55 Member Profile sbaker55
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010 1:23:19 PM
Re: None
Post # of 180602
So let me see if I understand the last PR from Dec 22. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
HOLE 1 drill depth = 719.3 meters (NO assays reported to date)
HOLE 2 drill depth = 344 meters
Hole 2 shows 75% positive REE results between the depth of 30 & 40 meters.
HOLE 2 REE RESULTS between 30 & 40 meters
0.164% TREO (including yttrium)
0.113% LREO
0.051% HREO (including yttrium).
0.268% zirconium dioxide
0.039% Nb2O5 (niobium oxide)
0.022% rubidium
Hole 2 still has 304 meters to be analyzed and reported. That's 88% left to be reported!
Hole 1 has 719.3 meters to be analyzed and reported. That's 100% left to be reported!
A total of 1,063.3 meters have been drilled and only 4% of that has been revealed. There is still 1,023.3 meters left to be analyzed and reported!.
