Rare earth - An extremely valuable resource with large reserves in Vietnam

(Dan Tri) - Rare earth elements have many applications and play an extremely important role in the production of high-tech equipment. Vietnam is the second country in the world in terms of reserves of this precious resource.

Rare-earth element (REE) is the general name of a group of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, including Scandium (Sc), Yttrium (Y) and 15 elements of the Lanthanum group (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu). Rare earth is an important raw material in many high-tech fields such as electronics, photovoltaics, lasers, superconducting materials, luminescent materials, catalysts, magnets, weapons manufacturing, medical equipment ... so this is considered a very valuable resource. Although named rare earth, in fact these elements are not really as rare as their name suggests. Except for the radioactive element promethium, the remaining rare earth elements are relatively abundant in the earth's crust, of which the element cerium is even more common than copper. However, rare earth elements are often dispersed and are not found concentrated in minerals. In addition, the rare earth element Promethium (Pm) is radioactive and the process of separating and processing rare earths can generate radiation, so the exploitation and processing of rare earths is often very expensive and difficult. Scientists believe that rare earth elements are becoming increasingly important and indispensable in the development of advanced technology products. Therefore, rare earth elements can be considered "economic weapons" of countries with large reserves in the 21st century.

Design: Hien Khuong

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