Rare earth Mining;dysprosium;Bastnaesite/Monazite (B/M);Rare Earth Elements (REE) containing ore

Categories:
Categories:
Unit processes/Materials production/Non-energetic raw materials
Location:
CN - China
Reference year: 2010 - 2019
Description

Dysprosium extracted from rare earth mining operations is utilized for its unique magnetic properties in various advanced technological applications. This includes manufacturing of components for electric motors in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and hard disk drives as well as in high-performance magnets and lasers. When utilizing this LCA data for the production of dysprosium, it is important to consider the allocation method based on both the mass and market prices of the rare earth elements (REEs) extracted. As the ores from different sources vary in composition, the allocation factor must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The functional unit of comparison should be consistent (1 kg Dy in this case). Ensure that methodological assumptions like system boundaries, data quality, and recycling considerations are accounted for and applied uniformly across the different sources in the comparative analysis.

Technology

The goal of this investigation is to compare environmental impacts related to the production of 1 kg Dy (functional unit) from IAC (Southern China), from B/M ore (Bayan Obo), and from an eudialyte deposit (Norra Kärr) using the LCA method

Process type
Unit
LCI modeling approach
Attributional
Multifunctional modeling
NONE
Format
ILCD
Aggregation type
NOT_APPLICABLE
Data provider
TianGong
Review status
Internal
Cost
Free
Contact
Tiangong LCI Data Working Group