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AN OBSCURE chunk of the periodic table is the focus of the latest dispute over Earth鈥檚 resources, with China apparently blocking exports of rare earth elements to Japan. Meanwhile, a bill that would end US reliance on Chinese REEs is under review by the House of Representatives.
REEs include yttrium, scandium and the row of elements known as the lanthanides. These show up in computer hard drives, catalytic converters, wind turbines, hybrid cars, sunglasses and lasers.
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China has just 37 per cent of the world鈥檚 REE reserves, yet accounts for 97 per cent of the market, sending REEs to Japan for processing and then on to the rest of the world. Its tightening of export quotas is rattling the US, which closed its main REE mine at Mountain Pass, California, in 2002.
Element disputes may come to dominate relations between countries, warns Richard Pike of the UK鈥檚 Royal Society of Chemistry.