28.3.16
A few notes on dysprosium
In contrast to erbium, dysprosium gets plenty of attention from rare earths companies, market watchers and analysts. It’s one of the most expensive rare earths, and it’s a key ingredient in the world’s strongest type of rare earths magnet.
The addition of dysprosium helps neodymium-based magnets function at higher temperatures; without dysprosium they would likely demagnetize. “It has a couple of other minor uses, but that is the overarching one,” Kramer-Miller said. “Given the fact that dysprosium is produced almost exclusively in China , and given its high price, a lot of companies that work with magnets have been doing work to remove dysprosium to as great an extent as possible.”
Certainly, it’s possible to reduce the amount of dysprosium used, but Kramer-Miller argued that it “makes sense to have access to as many materials as possible.” That falls in line with what Jon Hykawy of Stormcrow Capital has pointed out in the past — it’s possible to do a workaround, using different forms of technology to achieve the same function, but those alternatives usually aren’t as good as simply using rare earths.
“If companies produce dysprosium, I think there will be demand for it,” he said, adding, “although we could continue to see the gap between neodymium prices and dysprosium prices close.”