Solikamsk Magnesium Plant OJSC, Solikamsk, Russia:

P. G. Detkov, Member of the Board of Directors, Candidate of Technical Science, e-mail: p.detkov@yandex.ru

Independent Expert, Moscow, Russia:
D. V. Drobot, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, e-mail: dvdrobot@mail.ru

The history of rare earth elements can be dated back to 1787 when amateur mineralogist Carl Axel Arrhenius found an unknown heavy black mineral in the Swedish Ytterby. A sample of this mineral was sent for investigation to the University of Abo (currently, Turku) professor Johan Gadolin. During initial studies in 1794, an unknown substance was discovered. Having conducted a quantitative analysis of the material, professor Gadolin found that it had the following composition: silicon oxide – 31%, aluminium oxide – 19%, iron oxide – 12%, unknown oxide, or ‘unknown soil’, – 38%. In 1797, professor Anders Gustaf Ekeberg confirmed Gadolin’s results on the new material and suggested that the new oxide bear a Latin name – Yttria and the mineral should be called ytterbite, referring to the area where it had been discovered. In 1800, the mineral was studied by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who also confirmed the fact of discovering a new compound and establishe dthat the mineral contained beryllium oxide instead of aluminium oxide, as was believed by Gadolin and Ekeberg. Klaproth suggested renaming the mineral ‘gadolinite’ in honour of the person who had first discovered the new compound. Later on, as the chemical analysis techniques developed further, other rare earth elements were distinguished in gadolinite, including terbium, ytterbium and erbium. Their names relate to the Swedish village where the new mineral was first discovered.

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