Por: Daniel E. Lazo Martínez, docente de la Facultad de Ingeniería, Escuela de Ingeniería Mecánica, Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann.

Abstract

Rare earth elements (REE) have become very important worldwide in recent years. REEs have been recognized as "strategic" raw materials for the development of new technologies. REE are a group of metals (from the lanthanides) and two other metals: scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y).

Since the 1990s, China has been the main producer and has the world's largest reserves. The Chinese government announced an export quota for REE in 2009, because it wanted to retain them for its own market. To this end, it increased export taxes. The effect was a sharp rise in world market prices, which has been referred to as the rare earth crisis. 

In January 2015, the Chinese authorities communicated their decision to revoke their REE export quota, although there are doubts as to how long this policy will be maintained. Several countries, such as the United States of America, Australia and Russia, are investing in new rare earth projects to increase their share of the global market.