The 21st Rare Earth Research Conference is scheduled to meet in the United States in Duluth, MN, on July 7-11, 1996. It is expected that substantial additional resources will be discovered as the industry enters its fourth decade of major industrial expansion. U.S. and world resources are contained primarily in bastnasite and monazite. Bastnasite deposits in China and the United States constitute the largest percentage of the world's rare-earth economic resources, while monazite deposits in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States constitute the second largest segment. Undiscovered resources of rare earths are believed to be very large relative to expected demand.
Substitutes are available for many applications, but generally are less effective.
E Net exporter. NA Not available. W Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data. See also Scandium and Yttrium. Data rounded to three significant digits.