Industrial Applications of Rare Earth Elements

About 25 000 tons of RE Metals - calculated as oxide - are currently consumed in the world per year. This quantity is divided among a dazzling variety of applications. In order to bring a certain systemization into this variety, these applications and possible applications have been reviewed from 3 different aspects: from a historic development, from the special properties of the rare earths and from the degree of separation of the individual elements or group of elements of the rare earth metal series.