| 1787 |
Discovery of the black mineral "ytterbite" by Lieutenant Carl Axel Arrhenius at a quarry in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. |
| 1803 |
Scientists of the time obtained a white oxide and called it ceria. |
| 1839 |
Carl Gustav Mosander discovered an oxide of the soluble salt lanthana. |
| 1842 |
Mosander separates lanthana further into didymia and pure lanthana. The same year, he also separated ytteria into three oxides pure ytteria, terbia and erbia (all
the names are derived from the town name Ytterby). |
| 1879 |
The new element samarium was isolated by Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran from the mineral samarskite. |
| 1886 |
Samaria was further separated by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1886 and a similar result was obtained by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac by direct isolation from
samarskite. |
| 1901 |
Fractional crystallization yielded europium. |
| 1913 |
Henry Moseley, using x-ray spectra obtained by diffraction in crystals, made it possible to identify missing elements, even before their discovery. |
| Late 1930s |
More efficient synthetic resins were introduced as ion exchangers which would aid in separating rare earth elements. |
| 1940s |
Frank Spedding developed an ion exchange procedure for separating and purifying rare earth elements. |
| 1950s |
Industrial use of rare metals was very limited until efficient separation techniques were developed. |
| 1950s |
South Africa took the status as the world's largest rare earth source. |
| 1952 |
The Molybdenum Corporation of America (called Molycorp after 1974) started production at a small mining claim at Mountain Pass, California. |
| 1960s-1980s |
Molycorp becomes the largest world producer of rare earths. |
| 1967 |
Europium becomes the first high-purity rare earth element to enter the marketplace as a source of the color red in TV sets. There had been color TV before europium,
but color quality was weak. |
| 1984 |
U.S. production of rare earths peaks. |
| 1993 |
China surges rare earth production and quickly becomes the dominant supplier of rare earth metals. |
| 2002 |
Mining halted at Mountain Pass owing to both cost and environmental concerns. |
| 2006 |
China begins reducing output to cut pollution. |
| Dec. 2, 2008 |
Toyota launches rare earth business by acquiring a trading company specializing in rare earth products. |
| 2009 |
The Mineral Resources Program of the USGS organized a new project under the title Minerals at Risk and For Emerging Technologies. |
| Sep. 1, 2009 |
China announces plans to reduce its rare earth export quota to 35,000 tons per year in 2010–2015. |
| March 17, 2010 |
Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs David Sandalow announces that the U.S. Department of Energy is developing its first-ever strategic
plan concerning rare earth metals and other materials in energy components. |
| March 17, 2010 |
H.R. 4866 introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives "to reestablish a competitive domestic rare earths minerals production industry." |
| May 13, 2010 |
UNEP panel discussion and press release on feasibility of rare metal recycling. |
| July 8, 2010 |
China announces policy to reduce rare earth exports by 72% for the remainder of 2010. |
| July 29, 2010 |
Molycorp becomes a publicly-traded company with plans to build new mining facility in 2011. |
| Sep. 22, 2010 |
China halts shipments of rare earths to Japan after a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain. |
| Oct. 14, 2010 |
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “urgently necessary” for Europe to compete with China to develop and deliver raw materials. |
| Oct. 26, 2010 |
A research team at the University of Tokyo announces they developed an method to extract rare earths from neodymium magnets used in electric cars and hard disks |
| Nov. 22, 2010 |
Some shipments bound for Japan from China resume, after seven week interruption. |
| Nov. 23, 2010 |
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd vows to help supply rare-earth metals to Japan on a long-term basis. Japanese industry has worked out procurement deals
with several countries, including Australia and the U.S.. |
| Dec. 14, 2010 |
China's Ministry of Finance indicates the nation will raise tariffs on rare earth exports in 2011. |
| Dec. 15, 2010 |
The U.S. Department of Energy releases report raising questions about security of supply for technology products and clean energy industries. |
| Jan. 7, 2011 |
President Obama signs the fiscal 2011 defense authorization act into law. The bill requires that the military conduct an immediate review of its needs for rare
earth metals and stipulates that the department establish “an assured source of supply” for rare earth metals by 2015. |
| March 11, 2011 |
A massive 9.0 earthquake near the Fukushima power plant in Japan creates a nuclear accident potentially worse than Chernobyl in 1986. Solar and wind – clean energy
technologies that use rare earths – make it back into national energy policy discussions, potentially increasing demand.
|
| March 29, 2011 |
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that the Lynas’s Pahang plant was subject to an environmental impact assessment, potentially delaying the launch of the
rare earths refinery this year. Residents are concerned about waste products associated with the processing of rare earths.
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