Lanka’s long-neglected treasure, rare earths

Mineral sands in Sri Lanka. According to Geological Survey Department’s 1980 publication ‘Mineral Resources of Sri Lanka,’ ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite are present and the deposits are sufficiently concentrated for economic exploitation in Pulmoddai north of Trincomalee and Kaikawala near Induruwa

In mid-May 2016, Chen Hong, the President of Beijing’s SSG International Holding Group, arrived in Sri Lanka and informed the Minister for Industry and Commerce: “We are looking for outright purchase of any mineral sands and graphite production from the Government of Sri Lanka and also looking to fully own them if possible.”

He continued: “We believe that Sri Lanka has rare earth element deposits, but can do better. We think Sri Lanka is not getting the best price for them in international markets and we can help Sri Lankan mineral sector to earn more in their exports. We are also interested in new energy partnering.”

SSGIHG is among the highly-diversified industrial groups in China and the biggest mineral exploring firm in China, with ongoing operations in other Asian countries and Africa. The conglomerate is involved in many sectors; among them are mineral exploration and mining, automotive, new energy (non-ferrous energy storage, R&D), computer networks, culture and leisure parks, construction, waste recycling, healthcare, large scale digital entertainment gaming and computing and modern agricultural science and technology. 

Sri Lanka’s minerals

According to Geological Survey Department’s 1980 publication ‘Mineral Resources of Sri Lanka,’ ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite are present and the deposits are sufficiently concentrated for economic exploitation in Pulmoddai north of Trincomalee and Kaikawala near Induruwa. 

The beach sand deposit in Pulmoddai is four miles in length and nearly 200 feet wide. The beach deposit if not collected gets washed off into the sea with the monsoons but gets replenished every year. The deposit is estimated to contain nearly four million tons of raw sand and supposed to contain ilmenite 70%, zircon 8%, rutile 8%, monazite 0.3% and sillimanite 1%. Pulmoddai deposit is one of the world’s best known sources for titanium.

Ceylon Mineral Sands Corporation was formed in 1957 for the exploitation of these minerals and established two plants, one in Pulmoddai for the recovery of ilmenite and the other in China Bay in Trincomalee in to recover rutile and zircon. The corporation had been exporting ilmenite, rutile and zircon. In addition, mineral sands contain up to 0.3% monazite and up to 300 tons per annum could be recovered. According to the report, a minor deposit of allanite is found in Owella Estate, Matale and contains 15 to 20% of rare earth elements.

The above data may be outdated, published in an era prior to rare earths coming into demand. According to other sources, Sri Lanka is among the nine countries with monazite deposits and considered only second to China. The rare earth element source monazite was originally discovered in Sri Lanka in 1914.

In 1992, the corporation was converted to Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd. as a fully Government-owned company under the Ministry of State Resources and Enterprise Development. According to the ompany website, the functions of the company are to do mining, processing and exporting of heavy mineral beach sands (ilmenite, rutile and zircon). They serve industries as coating and ink, paper, steel, rubber, plastic, medical, textile and aircrafts. They sell their products based on public tender.

Products and annual production are as follows:

    1. Ilmenite: 90,000 tons

    2. Rutile: 9,000 tons

    3. Zircon: 5,500 tons

    4. Monazite: 100 tons

    5. Hi Titanium Ilmenite: 4,000 tons

The company website does not speak of rare earths at all.

According to other sources, “Monazite is the principal mineral source of the rare earth elements found in Sri Lanka. A by-product recovered during the purification process of ilmenite, rutile and zircon are monazite and allanite in smaller quantities. The rare earth component in monazite (cerium, lanthanium and yttriun) is around 55%. The Pulmoddai beach sands contain up to 0.3% monazite and approximately 300 tons of monazite could be recovered from the 140,000 tons of raw beach sands mined to recover ilmenite.”

China ranked number one among the eight countries that purchased Sri Lankan mineral sands in 2014 and has been the number one global buyer of Lankan Mineral Sands in the last few years. China purchased mineral sands worth $ 6.3 m during 2010 to 2014; three times the next closest buyer, India. 

Ilmenite

Ilmenite is the mineral titanium-iron oxide with the idealized formula FeTiO3. It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-grey solid. From the commercial perspective, ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and in 2011, about 47% of the titanium dioxide produced worldwide were based on this material. Metallic titanium can be easily derived from the oxide and is used in aircraft manufacture and high-strength steel devices.

Of the world’s titanium dioxide production, about 50% is consumed by North America and Europe. Demand by India and China is growing rapidly and may eventually surpass Western consumption. Most ilmenite ore production originates from Canada, South Africa and Norway. 

Rutile

Rutile is the most common natural form of TiO2 and is present in commercial quantities in some beach sands; rutile forms an important constituent of heavy minerals and ore deposits. The main uses for rutile are the manufacture of refractory ceramic, as a pigment and for the production of titanium metal. 

Finely powdered rutile is a brilliant white pigment and is used in paints, plastics, paper, foods, and other applications that call for a bright white colour. Titanium dioxide pigment is the single greatest use of titanium worldwide. Nanoscale particles of rutile are transparent to visible light but are highly effective in the absorption of ultraviolet radiation. The UV absorption of nano-sized rutile particles is blue-shifted compared to bulk rutile, so that higher-energy UV light is absorbed by the nano-plastics. Hence, they are used in sunscreens to protect against UV-induced skin damage. Rutile is widely used as a welding electrode covering.

What are rare earths?

Students who have studied chemistry are aware of the Periodic Table and the elements numbering 21, 39 and 57 to 71 are grouped as rare earths, but the teachings hardly went beyond the grouping, possibly few decades ago they were not considered important. These elements are not especially rare, but they tend to occur together in nature and are difficult to separate from one another.

Uses of rare earth elements

Prior to 1965 there was relatively little demand for rare earth elements. At that time, most of the world’s supply was produced from placer deposits in India, Brazil and South Africa. The demand for rare earth elements exploded in mid-1960s, with the entry of colour TV into the market. Europium was the essential material for producing the colour images. 

During the past 20 years, there has been an explosion in demand for many items that require rare earth metals. Some of them are:

Electronics: Television screens, computers, cell phones, silicon chips, monitor displays, long-life rechargeable batteries, camera lenses, light emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), baggage scanners, marine propulsion systems.

Manufacturing: High strength magnets, metal alloys, stress gauges, ceramic pigments, colorants in glassware, chemical oxidising agent, polishing powders, plastics, as additives for strengthening other metals, automotive catalytic converters. 

Medical science: Portable x-ray machines, x-ray tubes, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) contrast agents, nuclear medicine imaging, cancer treatment applications and for genetic screening tests, medical and dental lasers.

Technology: Lasers, optical glass, fibre optics, radar detection devices, nuclear fuel rods, mercury-vapour lamps, highly reflective glass, computer memory, nuclear batteries, high temperature superconductors.

Renewable energy: Hybrid automobiles, wind turbines, next generation rechargeable batteries, biofuel catalysts.

Military uses: Night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communications equipment, GPS equipment, batteries and other defence electronics.

Interesting facts:

• An estimated 1kg of rare earth elements can be found inside a typical hybrid automobile. 
• Holmium has the highest magnetic strength of any element and is used to create extremely powerful magnets. The application can reduce the weight of many motors.
• The rare earth europium is used as a way to identify legitimate bills for the Euro bill supply and to dissuade counterfeiting. 

World rare earth mineral resources

Rare earths are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, but discovered minable concentrations are less common than for most other ores. Bastnäsite deposits in China and the United States constitute the largest percentage of the world’s rare earth economic resources, while monazite deposits are found in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States.

Chinese becoming world’s leading supplier

Until 1948, most of the world’s rare earths were sourced from placer sand deposits in India and Brazil. Through 1950s, South Africa took the status as the world’s rare earth source. Through the 1960s until the 1980s, California was the leading producer.

China began producing rare earths in 1980s, mostly in Inner Mongolia and became the world’s leading producer in 1990s. During 1990s and early 2000s, China was selling rare earths below the cost of production, by 2010 they controlled almost 95% of the world’s rare earth market. China also was the world’s largest consumer, using rare earths mainly in manufacturing electronics products for domestic and export markets. Japan has been the buyer of 60% of China’s exports. But China’s resources constitute only about 40% of world’s resources. With the skyrocketing of world demand for rare earths, China realised that it was exhausting their resources fast, restricted exports and rare earth prices rose to historic levels.

In 2005, China announced regulations on exports, cracked down on smuggling and planned to reduce its export quota to 35,000 tons per year during 2010-2015 to conserve scarce resources and to protect the environment. During the subsequent years China reduced export quotas and halted production in three of its eight major rare earth mines, responsible for almost 40% of China’s total rare earth production. In March 2012, the US, EU, and Japan confronted China at WTO over these export and production restrictions. Under foreign pressure, in 2015, China lifted all quotas from the export of rare earths, however export licences remain.

Rare earth production outside of China

Mines in Australia began producing rare earths and in 2011 were supplying about 2 to 3% of world production, while United States produced about 4% of the world’s rare earth elements in 2013. India has been producing about 3% of the world’s supply for the past decade. Indonesia, Russia, Nigeria, North Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam are minor producers.

In addition during 2013, rare earth exploration and/or development were underway in Canada, Finland, Greenland, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey and Sri Lanka; however, production from these countries was insignificant.

Future demand for rare earths

The global demand for automobiles, consumer electronics, energy-efficient lighting, rechargeable batteries, magnets and catalysts is expected to rise rapidly over the next decade. New developments in medical technology are expected to increase the use of surgical lasers, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography scintillation detectors. Rare earth elements are heavily used in all of these industries, so the demand would remain high. As a result of the increased demand and tightening restrictions on exports from China, some countries are stockpiling rare earth resources. 

Rare earth pricing

Rare earth elements are not exchange-traded in the same way that precious metals as gold and silver or non-ferrous metals such as nickel, tin, copper and aluminium. Instead they are sold on the private market, which makes their prices difficult to monitor and track. The 17 elements are not usually sold in their pure form, but instead are distributed in mixtures of varying purity. In Sri Lanka tenders are called annually for the purchase of its minerals.

Sri Lanka’s future possibilities

The world’s industry that use rare earth minerals consider Sri Lanka to be a possible supplier of rare earths, but Lanka Mineral Sands Ltd. (LMSL) as well as the Ministry of State Resources and Enterprise Development seem to be completely unaware of the world’s demand for their products. 

Sri Lanka’s claim of possible production of 100 tons of monazite per year seem to be insignificant compared to China’s export quota of 35,000 tons per year. But our resources were important enough to attract Chen Hong, the President of Beijing’s SSG International Holding Group, one of the largest companies dealing with rare earth materials, to spend few days in Sri Lanka and meeting the Minister. 

The Chinese interest shows that the potential and the value of our raw material is far higher than we have assumed. LMSL’s website does not even speak of the presence of rare earths in the country at all. The increasing usage of rare earths in multiple high-tech industrial usages would increase the demand and value especially with the limited availability of raw materials.

Unfortunately, during the 30-year war, the region gifted with rare earths was neglected. Our universities failed to direct their young academics to be trained on rare earth usage, even though the presence of rare earths in Monazite was discovered as far back as 1914. The entry colour TV in the mid-1960s resulted exploding of demand, but our scientists were completely unaware and continued to neglect the valuable source. Most likely our professors did not wish to be involved in a faraway location from their universities.

But now, the Chinese have shown interest, are our scientists and the politicians aware of the situation and prepared to take steps for the long term interest of the country? Our graphite mines are already controlled by a foreign company. If we blindly sign agreements with the Chinese, as they have already expressed their intensions, they would bring their own labour and technology, would exploit our resources and be lost forever. 

Rare earth materials are used in different industries and the industry requirements may differ. But out of the leftovers that are currently thrown away, it should be possible to collect other valuables, which require further processing and separation of different components. Our LMSC and the Government need to negotiate with the Chinese for local value addition to get an agreement favourable to the county.