What are rare earths

The English word for rare earth is Rare Earth, which means "rare earth". In fact, this is nothing more than a misunderstanding left behind by the 18th century. After 1787, several rare earth elements were discovered, but few minerals were found. Due to the limitations of science and technology at the time, only impure, earth-like oxides could be produced, hence the charming and interesting name given to this group of elements.

What elements are in rare earths?

　　Rare earths are the elements of the lanthanide family 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 ), and two elements closely related to the 15 elements of the lanthanide family - scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y) - for a total of 17 elements known as the rare earth elements (Rare Earth). They are referred to as Rare Earth (RE or R) for short.

Rare earths are a rich strategic resource in China and it is an essential raw material for many highly sophisticated industries. China has many strategic resources such as iron ore that are poor, but rare earths are abundant. At present, resources are a valuable asset and an important weapon for developing countries to defend their rights and interests against the power of the great powers. Comrade Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China's reform and opening up, once said meaningfully, "The Middle East has oil, we have rare earths." Rare earths are a group of new functional materials with electrical, magnetic, optical and biological properties, which are important basic materials for high technology fields such as information technology, biotechnology, energy technology and national defence construction. Rare earths have a wide range of applications and can be used in a wide variety of functional materials, forming a large scale high-tech industry group with a very broad market prospect and strategic importance. It is also known as the "industrial vitamin".