Rare Earth Elements
In recent years a group of elements known as the Rare Earth Elements (REE) have become central to our information, electronics and “green energy” industries. They are used in most renewable energy systems (for example: wind turbines, electric vehicles, solar panels) and are also essential components of most of electronic devices (cell phones, computers, tablets, flat screen displays) and phosphors in high efficiency lighting systems. Each of these elements possess unique chemical properties such as (fluorescence, high refraction indexes, strong paramagnetic properties, and high hydrogen storing capacities) that make them ideal for a wide range of applications and products from military and aerospace applications,3 to catalysts in petroleum refining, catalytic converters, fuel cells, high capacity batteries, and a host of other electronic applications 4 ( a complete listing of each element’s application and products is listed in the Appendix). And although they have become indispensable components of nearly all of our modern technologies, their extraction and refining processes cause great harm to the environment, the living organisms in the ecosystems where they are mined and the workers that process them.5
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