According to Kyodo News Agency of Japan, the electrical giant Nippon Electric Power Co., Ltd. recently announced that it would launch products that do not use heavy rare earths as soon as this fall. More rare earth resources are distributed in China, which will reduce the geopolitical risk that trade frictions lead to procurement obstacles.
Nippon Electric Power uses heavy rare earth “dysprosium” and other rare earths in the magnet part of the motor, and the available countries are limited. In order to realize the stable production of motors, we are promoting the development of magnets and related technologies that do not use heavy rare earths.
Rare earth is said to cause environmental pollution during mining. Among some customers, considering the business and environmental protection, the expectation of products without rare earth is high.
Although the production cost will rise, the delivery target automobile manufacturers put forward strong requirements.
Japan has been trying to reduce its dependence on China’s rare earths. The Japanese government will start to develop the technology of mining the deep-sea rare earth mud in Nanniao Island, and plans to start trial mining as early as 2024. Chen Yang, a visiting researcher at the Japan Research Center of Liaoning University, said in an interview with the satellite news agency that mining deep-sea rare earth is not easy, and faces many difficulties such as technical difficulties and environmental protection issues, so it is difficult to achieve in the short and medium term.
Rare earth elements are the collective name of 17 special elements. Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, they are widely used in new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, aerospace, electronic information and other fields, and are indispensable and important elements in modern industry. At present, China undertakes more than 90% of the world’s market supply with 23% of rare earth resources. At present, almost all of Japan’s demand for rare metals depends on imports, 60% of which come from China.
Source: Rare Earth Online
Post time: Mar-09-2023