Well,

I have to say, I hope it was under, I hope it would be under happier circumstance, but anything we can do to help folks think more clearly about rare earth elements and

critical raw materials is a good thing. Well, thank you for helping us today on on Newscast. First things first, just explain to us what we're talking about when we say rare Earth metals or rare Earth materials. And I was quite surprised because actually it doesn't mean that they're actually rare. Yes,

that's right. This is such an important thing to get right out of the gate. So the term rare Earth elements refers to 17 elements of the periodic table, 57 to 71, if you want to be specific, plus scandium and atrium. That's quite different from a much larger set of metals and minerals that are considered critical. So, for example, lithium, titanium, platinum, these are often talked about as rare or critical, but they're not part of the same family as rare earth elements. And in fact, rare earth elements are not all that rare. That's a misnomer that I think has stuck around for more than a century because it's exciting. And why are they called rare? I looked into that question myself really extensively. I think the story goes back to the late 1700s when the first oxides were identified in Sweden. And at that time, when they were first identified, no one had ever seen them before. And so they were presumed to be rare. Of course, then geological research proceeded over the next century or so. And the first mention that I found of a chemist lamenting this misnomer is from a journal article that was published in 1907. Rare earth elements are in fact not rare. They were believed to be so when they were initially discovered. But since then, chemists and material scientists and specialists in the field know the difference. Well,

I love the fact that us known experts have been getting it wrong since 1907. That's kind of weirdly reassuring. And then when you talk about critical minerals, what's the real definition there then? Is it critical as in they're very, very important or critical as in like a critically endangered species, like actually the definition of rare? Ah,

that's a really interesting question. So a number of different countries and political blocks have their own critical minerals or critical raw materials lists. And in order to make it on that list for that particular country or political block, that material needs to be crucial to various industrial applications. And it also needs to be part of a supply chain that may unfortunately be vulnerable to disruption. So several different rare earth elements are also included on critical minerals or critical raw materials lists, but the lists are much bigger than the lanthanite series that I just mentioned. Okay,

right. Let's go through some of these substances then, and you can just give me like a little pen portrait of what each one is, and then we'll talk about it in a Ukraine context. You've mentioned some of them already, though. What is lithium used for? Why are people so hungry for it?

So lithium is actually not a rare earth element. It's a critical element because it's so important for rechargeable batteries. And these rechargeable batteries are used in just about everything you can think of from, of course, EVs, right, which are critical for energy transition goals to perhaps not so critical applications such as disposable vape pens, right? That's another example. And then just about every household appliance or gadget that you might have that has a rechargeable battery, chances are that's also a lithium ion battery. So that's why this material is in such high demand these days.

Okay. Zirconium.

So zirconium is an interesting element, right? Because it's not actually a rare earth element, but it tends to co-occur with rare earth elements. So it's used in a number of different industrial applications for polishing, for alloys, for things that are maybe a little bit less glamorous than lithium, and also perhaps a little less glamorous than, say, neodymium or praseodymium, which are the superstars of the high-power magnets that are used in a variety of applications from renewable energy to defence. Dimium

could be a description of me in this conversation. What about niobium? Niobium

is an interesting element because it also tends to co-occur with the lanthanide series with those rare earth elements. But niobium itself is not actually a rare earth element, even though it is often included on critical raw materials lists. Niobium is perhaps better known in its form as coltan, which is a shorthand that combines columbite and tantalite, which are in fact two elements that are often found together. And that coltan rose to international prominence surrounding revelations and concerns around its role as a conflict mineral in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. But in fact, niobium production globally, I'm pleased to say, is actually concentrated in two pretty well regulated and managed mining operations, one in Brazil and one in Canada. Okay. And we won't go through them all, but one last one, titanium. This is the superstar of various aerospace alloys, surgical instruments, defense applications as well. It's used to make alloys that are more temperature resistant, but are also lighter and therefore more energy and fuel efficient. So chances are, if you look at an impressive bridge or pipeline or an airplane,

you're looking at a fair amount of this as well. Thank you for that tour of the periodic table, including critical minerals as well as rare earths. I was having a very sort of generous description there. In terms of the situation in Ukraine, okay, podcasting isn't the greatest medium for drawing a map, but how would you describe the distribution of these things in that country?