Dysprosium is white with low toxicity.  The biological usage of dysprosium is still unknown.  Just as other lanthanide elements-15 kinds of chemical elements with the atomic number from 57 to 71, are found in the monazite and bastnaesite, with a little bit existed in the xenotime and fergusonite.  As the Rare Earth Investing News indicated, different from the light rare earth, the later development of the heavy rare earth, such as dysprosium is not uncertain after the cancellation of quota on export of China.  Nevertheless, the heavy rare earth will still be short on the whole.

2. Application of dysprosium

The royal Society of Chemistry held that the application fields of dysprosium were not as extensive as other rare earth elements.  As a kind of pure metal, dysprosium can react with water and air.  Therefore, it is very difficult to dispose.  However, in recent years, due to the extensive application of dysprosium into neodymium magnetic materials, this situation is changed. For the same weight and volume, the magnetism of rare earth is much stronger than that of other types of materials.  In particular, NdFeB with the strongest magnetism is now extensively applied in many modern science and technology fields, such as engine, generators of wind turbines and electric vehicles, etc. in the opinion of RSC, the main use of dysprosium is in the NdFeB materials to make the NdFeB materials work under the high temperature as normal, in which, the magnetic materials may be degaussed.  Therefore, RSC thought the demand of dysprosium is improved rapidly.

Except for the application in the magnetic materials, dysprosium can also be applied in the dysprosium iodide used in the halide lamps and the dysprosium and nickel oxide ceramics used in the control rod of nuclear reactions.  Due to that dysprosium can absorb the neutrons easily without any expansion or shrinkage, dysprosium is extremely appropriate to applied in the field of nuclear.

3. Supply risks

It is tougher and tougher to get dysprosium. In fact, in recent years, to avoid the supply risks of dysprosium, many manufacturers are seeking for other ways to decrease the dependence on it.  For example, in 2013, Hitachi Metals decreased the amount of dysprosium used in the NEOMAX magnetic materials in the vehicle industry.  The company said, “As one of the most expensive heavy rare earth elements, dysprosium is mainly used to change the heat resistance in sintering the neodymium magnets.  However, due to the single supply channel, the increasing demand leads to the shortage of supply and rising of price.”  The vehicle industry has started to seek for the ways to reduce the usage amount of dysprosium or the replacement of dysprosium, especially in the application into the neodymium magnets sintering.  Nowadays, not only the supply of dysprosium becomes a concern of the Hitachi Metals, as the2013 annual report of the Congressional Research Service recorded, the US Congress also has began to search for the solutions to improve the global rare-earth supply chains.

4. The influences of China on the rare earth market

As the largest rare earth producer and the largest dysprosium producer in the world, although the recent reports showed that China’s control of the rare earth market will be weakened, China still has the largest proportion of the global rare earth production.  On account of the high demand of the magnetic materials by all the batteries in the engines of the hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and wind turbines, the concern of the shortage of dysprosium will be stronger and stronger.  In addition, China has taken a strong stance against the illegal production of the rare earth. Ganzhou Government said, “Since last June, there are about 233 illegal rare earth mines having been banned through the improvements and rectifications of the illegal production enterprises.  By this means, the production of the illegal mines is constrained or stopped.”  However, Jon Hykawy from the Storm crow thought it is very difficult for China to stop all the illegal rare earth mines.  It is certain that all the investors interested in rare earth will pay close attentions to the dynamics of the dysprosium producers in other worlds besides of China.