By Shane Lasley
Mining News
Critical Minerals Alaska – Rare Earths
It may not be Alaska's geological endowment that elevates the state to a vital domestic source of these high-tech elements North of 60 Mining News – March 1, 2018
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Last updated 9/24/2020 at 6:54pm
Peggy Greb, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Rare earth elements are key ingredients in a wide range of modern products such as terabyte hard-drives that fit in the palm of your hand, high-efficiency power generation and sophisticated military hardware. Clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium.
Before color televisions hit the markets in the 1960s, rare earths where a curious group of elements that had the distinction of occupying their own separate section at the bottom of the periodic table but had very few practical applications. Over the ensuing 50 years, however, this group of 15 lanthanides plus yttrium and scandium have been discovered to possess unique properties that make them k...
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