Rare earth elements in Andhra Pradesh

• Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research Institute has found large deposits of 15 Rare Earth Elements (REE) in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district.
• REEs (aka rare earth oxides) are a group of 17 silvery-white soft heavy metals that occur together in periodic table.
• Group consists of yttrium and 15 lanthanide elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium).
• REEs are all metals having many similar properties, and that often causes them to be found together in geologic deposits.
• REEs are used in high end technology, defence applications, electronic devices like cell-phones, computers, electric vehicle etc. because of their luminescent and catalytic properties.

Related news

• Scientists from Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, have estimated the quantity of REEs that can be recovered from Red Mud.
• Red Mud is a toxic byproduct of aluminium extraction from bauxite ore using Bayer process.
• Red Mud contains REEs.
• There are two strategies to recover REEs from red mud:
  • extract only REEs or
  • extract all metals (such as iron, titanium, and sodium) including REEs.
• Earlier an estimated 9-million tonne reserve of lithium, a crucial mineral for the manufacturing of electric vehicles and solar panels, had been discovered in Reasi district of J&K by the Geological Survey of India (GSI).