You may not have heard of it, but you may be carrying some embarrassment now.neodymium magnet NdFeB Magnet This rare metal is used in the manufacture of mobile phones, headphones and even cars.
Known as rare earth elements, the global demand for such metals is increasing. Roderick Eggert, deputy director of the Key Materials Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, said that helium is currently the main factor driving demand for rare earth metals.
iPhones, AirPods, wind turbines, and motors from the Toyota Prius or Tesla Model 3 all require this rare metal. If you combine bismuth with iron and boron, you can make a neodymium iron boron magnet, which is by far the most powerful permanent magnet.
Applying neodymium magnets to mobile phones and other devices not only reduces size but also enhances performance. For motors, the use of permanent magnets means power is high and there are fewer motor components.
Magnets may seem trivial, but according to market research group IMARC, the market for NdFeB magnets in 2017 was $11.3 billion. In addition, Michael Genko, CEO of Import Genius, said that for the past few decades, the United States is expected to have 1 million electric vehicles, which means that demand for sputum will surge.
Earlier this year, Tesla became one of several electric vehicle manufacturers using neodymium magnet motors, and it is planning to install neodymium magnet motors in Tesla Model 3. According to Kanko, Tesla imported more than four million pounds of auto parts from China and Taiwan, most of which are neodymium magnet motors. In addition, Julie Klinger, author of The Rare Earth Frontier, said that the global supply and demand gap is expanding at a rate of more than 3,000 tons per year, which is currently in short supply.
钕 Supply is mainly from China, and more than 80% of the world's cockroaches are produced in China. In 2017 alone, China mined 105,000 tons of rare earth metals, while the United States produced only about 43,000 tons of rare earth metals in the past 20 years.
A miner from the southern part of California near Nevada called the Mountain Pass mine pointed out that the United States was once the most important country producing rare earths. In the 1960s and 1970s, the mine was the world's dominant rare earth mine. However, as Chinese mines were developed in the 1980s and 1990s, the Mountain Pass mine gradually declined.
At about the same time, China is investing heavily in its own rare earth metal mining and production and has achieved success. Kanko pointed out that from the late 1990s to 2010, China became the dominant player in the rare earth metal market.
Klinger said that the 2010 trade dispute illustrates the risks posed by a single source of this value commodity. The price per ton of cockroaches soared from $50,000 in 2010 to $250,000 in 2011. Although prices have fallen, the global supply of this metal is still worrying. For example, Toyota recently developed a new magnet to reduce enthalpy, which was developed to cope with the shortage of cesium supply.
The Mountain Pass mine was recently rescued from bankruptcy by two US investment companies and named it MP Materials, which said it hopes to rebuild the US rare earth industry. This means that the United States will start producing rare earths again.
