Rare earths get no respect. Stuck near the bottom of the periodic table of the elements, and given unpronounceable names like praseodymium and ytterbium, they have nowhere near the glamour and popularity that oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and the other chart-toppers do. Heck, even zirconium — used to create the oft-mocked cubic zirconia diamond simulant — fares better than the rare earths. The irony of all this is that most people use products made with rare earths daily. In fact, you could say we wouldn’t be able to live without them, as they’re found in most high-tech gadgets: cell phones, computers, iPods and more.
So what, exactly, are these things? There are 17 rare earth elements, according to a widely accepted definition, all of which exhibit similar chemical properties: the elements in the lanthanide series — lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium — plus yttrium and scandium, classified as “transition metals”.
Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd (LON:RBW) is a mining company focussed on production from, and expansion of, the high grade Gakara Rare Earth Project in Burundi, East Africa. With in-situ grades in the range of 47-67% Total Rare Earth Oxide (TREO), Gakara is one of the world’s richest rare earth deposits.