A vital ingredient in everyday life
Mineral sands and rare earths are important ingredients in a wide range of products.
Essential for renewable energy
Rare earths extracted from mineral sands are essential ingredients in the manufacture of wind turbines and electric vehicles.
Global demand for rare earths is increasing as the growth in renewable energy continues to address climate change. If we want to continue clean energy production to address climate change, we need to produce rare earths.
The Fingerboards Critical Minerals Project is rich in the highly valuable rare earths Neodymium, Praseodymium, Dysprosium and Terbium. These rare earths are essential ingredients for permanent magnets used in direct drive turbines in windfarms and electric motors in electric vehicles.
The Fingerboards Critical Minerals Project is one of the largest zircon and rare earth projects in the world. Once in production, the project is expected to supply up to 5% of global demand for rare earths, essential for the development of clean energy. The annual production from the project could supply enough rare earths for the construction of approximately 150 million electric vehicles and 68,000 giant (10MW) wind turbines.
Minerals in every household
Mineral sands are essential ingredients in many personal and household items including toothpaste, paint, tiles, sunscreen, computers and mobile phones, just to name a few.
Titanium dioxide is the most widely used white pigment because of its non-toxicity, brightness and very high refractive index. It is an essential component of consumer products such as paint, plastics and paper and is used as a pigment in everyday personal products – toothpaste, sunscreen, cosmetics, and food items.
Zircon has a range of uses, the largest of which is ceramic tiles, accounting for more than 50 per cent of global zircon consumption. Zircon gives ceramic tiles their brilliant opacity, whiteness and brightness. Zircon’s unique properties include heat and wear resistance, stability, opacity, hardness and strength. These properties mean it is also sought after for other applications such as refractories, foundries and specialty chemicals.
Important to medical technology
Mineral sands are used in prosthetics and joint replacements that require strong, lightweight metals.
Titanium is one of the most biocompatible metals – it is non-toxic and readily accepted by the human body. Its density is very similar to bone and will readily adhere to it. These qualities make titanium perfect for use in surgical implants such as hip balls and sockets, heart stents and dental implants.
Rare earths also play a vital role in modern medical technology such as MRI machines.
