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Material World
Mineral · YPO4

Xenotime

Yttrium phosphate — the ore of yttrium and, unlike monazite, the mineral that concentrates the heavy rare earths.

Ore

Xenotime is yttrium phosphate, and its importance is which rare earths it prefers. Monazite and bastnäsite take the light ones — cerium, lanthanum, neodymium — because those ions are larger. Xenotime's site is smaller, so it accepts yttrium and the heavy rare earths that resemble it: dysprosium, terbium, erbium.

That split matters commercially. The heavy rare earths are scarcer, harder to separate and more valuable per kilogram, and dysprosium in particular is what stops a neodymium magnet demagnetising when it gets hot — which is to say, what makes such a magnet usable in a motor. A supply of light rare earths does not substitute.

Extraction

Like monazite, xenotime is dense and chemically durable, so it survives weathering and collects in heavy mineral sands. Most is recovered as a by-product of mining those sands for tin or titanium rather than from deposits worked for it directly.

Medium confidence Weak evidence

How we know: checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source.

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is an ore of

  • Yttrium — element · the principal source of yttrium and of the heavy rare earths that resemble it Wikidata

is an input to

  • Rare earth separation — process · the heavy rare earth feed, where monazite and bastnäsite bring the light ones

is commonly confused with

  • Zircon — mineral · both tetragonal phosphate-like prisms in the same heavy mineral sands; zircon is harder and denser

is a component of

  • Pegmatite — rock · an accessory of rare-element pegmatites rather than a defining constituent — the yttrium phosphate, taking the heavy rare earths the others reject

contains

Sources

  • Material World
    Our own writing
  • Wikidata
    Wikimedia Foundation · Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (public domain dedication)

Questions this page answers

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Xenotime back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Downstream — what it becomes

  • Xenotime → is an input to (the heavy rare earth feed, where monazite and bastnäsite bring the light ones) → Rare earth separation → produces (a light rare earth, separated from its neighbours by countercurrent solvent extraction) → Lanthanum → is a component of (roughly a quarter, again as the ore gave it) → Mischmetal → is used as (added to molten steel to scavenge sulfur and oxygen and reshape the inclusions that remain, which improves toughness — an unglamorous use that consumes a great deal of it) → Alloying
  • Xenotime → is an ore of (the principal source of yttrium and of the heavy rare earths that resemble it) → Yttrium → is used as (as the red phosphor in displays and lamps) → Lighting
  • Xenotime → is a component of (an accessory of rare-element pegmatites rather than a defining constituent — the yttrium phosphate, taking the heavy rare earths the others reject) → Pegmatite
  • Xenotime → is an input to (the heavy rare earth feed, where monazite and bastnäsite bring the light ones) → Rare earth separation → produces (a light rare earth, separated from its neighbours by countercurrent solvent extraction) → Cerium → is a component of (about half, because that is the proportion the ore delivers — mischmetal is the light rare earths left unseparated) → Mischmetal → is used as (added to molten steel to scavenge sulfur and oxygen and reshape the inclusions that remain, which improves toughness — an unglamorous use that consumes a great deal of it) → Alloying
  • Xenotime → is an input to (the heavy rare earth feed, where monazite and bastnäsite bring the light ones) → Rare earth separation → produces (a light rare earth, separated from its neighbours by countercurrent solvent extraction) → Praseodymium → is used as (substitutes for part of the neodymium with little loss of performance) → Permanent magnets
  • Xenotime → is an input to (the heavy rare earth feed, where monazite and bastnäsite bring the light ones) → Rare earth separation → produces (a light rare earth, separated from its neighbours by countercurrent solvent extraction) → Lanthanum → is used as (fluid catalytic cracking, which underlies most transport fuel supply) → Catalysis

These are the most distinct paths onward. Xenotime ends up in others besides.