Seven rare earth metals that are a part of US-China trade war.
Rare but critical
Seven rare earth metals that are found mostly or exclusively in China and are a part of US-China trade war.
Terbium
Yttrium
Dysprosium
Gadolinium
Lutetium
Samarium
Scandium
Terbium
Terbium is a silvery-white rare earth metal which is known for its malleability and ductility. It is used in solid-state devices, fuel cells, electronic sensors, and fluorescent lights. It is mostly found in southern China.
Yttrium
Yttrium is a silvery-white transition metal which is moderately soft, ductile and stable in air. It is used in fluorescent lamps, color displays, TV screens, high-powered lasers and cancer treatments. It is found in many places in the world, including US and India, but the highest concentration is found in China.
Dysprosium
It is a silvery-white metal known for its magnetic strength and thermal resistance. It is soft, malleable, and stable in air but reacts slowly with water and dissolves in diluted acids. It is used for enhancing performance of magnets, control rods of nuclear reactors, solid-state lasers and other aerospace applications. It is found in China, India and the United States.
Gadolinium
It is a silvery-white metal known for its high magnetic properties. It is soft, ductile and malleable. It is used in MRI contrast agents to enhance image clarity, in nuclear reactors as a neutron absorber in control rods, in data storage devices and high performance magnets, color TV screens and fluorescent lamps. It is found in many countries in the world but the highest concentration is in China and the United States.
Lutetium
It is a silvery-white metal. It is used as a catalyst in petroleum refining and medical applications, in PET scan detectors and optical devices, in atomic clocks. It is mostly found in US, China and Brazil.
Samarium
It is a silvery-white metal which is moderately hard and stable in air, but it oxidizes slowly over time. It is used in Samarium-Cobalt magnets, which are strong and heat resistant, in cancer treatments, as neutron absorber in control rods of nuclear reactors, in infrared absorbing glass and carbon arc lamp electrodes. It is found in many countries but most of the deposits are in US and China.
Scandium
It is a silvery-white metal which is light weight, corrosion resistant and paramagnetic. It is used in aircraft, sports equipment, high-intensity lamps and laser technology, radio therapy and as catalyst in petroleum refining. It is mostly found in China, Russia and Ukraine.
All these metals are silvery-white in color, mostly found in China, and used in critical and cutting-edge technologies.