Terbium
Terbium is the green in LED phosphors and the grain-boundary additive that lets Nd-Fe-B magnets stay strong above 180 °C. With oxide supply below 1 000 t per year and sourced almost entirely from ion-adsorption clays in southern China and Myanmar, price routinely exceeds US $1 500 kg. Magnet makers are stretching each kilogram through Dy/Tb diffusion and scrap recycling, yet absolute demand still rises with EV motors and ultra-high-brightness LEDs.
Supply Dynamics
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Chinese and Myanmar clay leach operations supply > 90 %; periodic environmental crack-downs trigger 2–3 times price spikes.
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Border closures in northern Myanmar remove as much as 15 % of global feed overnight.
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No advanced Western heavy-REE mines due onstream before late-2020s.
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Magnet-swarf recycling pilot lines in Europe could reach 8–10 % supply by 2030.
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Government stockpiles for defence programmes buffer (but also tighten) spot market liquidity.
Demand Dynamics
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EV traction motors and 15 MW offshore turbines raise Tb diffusion demand per magnet set.
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Mini-LED and µ-LED backlighting restores growth in green-phosphor volumes.
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Quantum and magneto-optical R&D create optionality but remain tiny tonnages.
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Heavy-REE substitution hardly feasible; lowering loadings depends on grain-boundary engineering.
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Scrap-based Tb recovery in the EU/Japan gains scale but is < 5 % of supply today.