Rare earth elements are chemical elements including yttrium and the 15 lanthanide elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium).
The rare earth elements are all metals, and have many similar properties, and that often causes them to be found together in similar geological settings. They are also referred to as “rare earth oxides” because many of them are typically sold as oxide compounds.
The Tardiff Mineral Resource contains mainly light rare earth metals dominated by neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr). These exhibit a growing demand due to their use in high technology applications.
Through its Nechalacho project in Canada, Vital Metals aims towards advancing the project toward development to enable and grow a North American Rare Earths supply chain.
Why Are Rare Earths Important?
▸ Critical Components in advanced technologies
– Electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, smartphones, computers, batteries, medical devices, and defence systems
▸ Enable Green Technologies
– Essential for the energy transition, especially in permanent magnets for clean energy and transport
▸ Strategic Value
– Supply is dominated by a few countries, making local production critical for national security and supply chain stability
▸ Growing Demand
– Demand for REEs is forecast to increase rapidly with global electrification and decarbonisation trends.
What are rare earths used for?
Based on 95% of TREO consumption over 10 years, the following is an expanded list of areas where Rare Earths have and continue to be used.
• Battery alloys: used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, power tools, etc
• Catalysts: used in catalytic converters, fuel cracking catalysts, etc
• Ceramics, pigments and glazes: used in applications which necessitate high temperature stability
• Glass polishing powders and additives: used in optical glass to mobile phones and LCD screens
• Metallurgy and alloys: added to liquid steel during steelmaking
• Permanent magnets for use in motors
• Phosphors: used in lamps and backlighting
• Other uses in chemicals, materials and technologies such as communications, defence and healthcare.
 Green Energy A 3MV wind turbine uses 600+kg of NdPR Oxides. Projected to grow at a rate of over 7% |
 Hydraulic Fracturing Every barrel of crude fracked uses 3.8g of REO cracking catalysts. |
 Military Strategic Resource Heavily used in: Jet Turbines, submarines, advanced weapons systems (lasers, satellites), communication networks and computing. |
 Electric Vehicles EVs expected to grow from 3 million to 125 million by 2030. Every electronic car will use 0.5-1.5kg more NdPr than the internal combustion engine it replaces. |
