The rare earth that people often talk about is actually a collective name for 17 metal elements, namely lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium. According to the different physical and chemical properties, rare earths are divided into light rare earths and heavy rare earths, light rare earths include the above 7 elements from lanthanum to europium, and heavy rare earths are the remaining 10 elements.

The content of rare earth elements in the earth's crust is not low, but only the enrichment of rare earth elements can form mineral deposits with mining value. At present, the rare earth minerals found are mainly divided into monazite ore, bazite fluorocarbonite, yttrium phosphate ore and ion adsorption rare earth ore.

Monazite ore and basilite are widely distributed, such as the famous Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California, USA is a basilium mine, these two mines produce rare earths mainly lanthanum, cerium and other light rare earths.

Yttrium phosphate ore and ion adsorption rare earth ore are mainly heavy rare earths, of which the latter contains the most complete heavy rare earth elements, and this kind of rare earth ore has only been found in southern China, and there has been no similar discovery in other countries.

Due to the different distribution of mineral deposits, including different rare earth elements, the proven reserves of various rare earth elements vary greatly, which in turn affects their respective prices. Among the various rare earth elements, the price of lanthanum and cerium of the light rare earth series is the lowest, which was once called the "cabbage price", and the price of elements such as praseodymium and neodymium is slightly higher, but it is not expensive. In contrast, the price of heavy rare earths is very different, the price of dysprosium, terbium and other elements oxide is hundreds of times higher than lanthanum and cerium oxide, and dozens of times higher than praseodymium and neodymium oxide.

Knowing the distinction between rare earths and the difference in price, it is not difficult to understand why various institutions that study rare earth permanent magnet materials focus on light rare earths. The reason for this is nothing more than the desire to reduce the price of permanent magnet materials so that they can be more widely used.

The main material of NdFeB is light rare earth neodymium, and the price of neodymium oxide per ton is only 30,000 US dollars, which makes the price of NdFeB controllable below 30,000 US dollars per ton. If you replace the main rare earth materials with dysprosium and terbium, which are ten times more expensive. Then the price of new permanent magnet materials will inevitably increase by more than ten times, which is an unbearable burden for the industry that uses permanent magnet materials.

After Sun Yuzhi revealed that the new permanent magnet material is a mixed sinter of dysprosium iron boron and terbium iron boron, the first thing that came to Hirano's mind was the cost issue.

Even if the magnetic properties of the new permanent magnet material are higher than that of NdFeB, if its price is more than 10 times that of NdFeB. Then its market value will be greatly reduced.

Without waiting for Sadao Hirano to figure out this question, Sun Yuzhi's next sentence completely destroyed his hesitation: "After our actual verification, the Curie temperature of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy can reach 700 degrees Celsius, much higher than the 350 degrees Celsius of NdFeB. ”

The so-called Curie temperature is simply the temperature at which the magnet loses its magnetism. One of the Achilles heels of NdFeB is that its Curie temperature is only about 350 degrees Celsius, and even if other elements are mixed to improve, it can only be increased to about 460 degrees Celsius. Due to the low Curie temperature. In some high-temperature occasions, NdFeB has no use.

It is precisely because he knows this weakness of NdFeB that when Sun Yuzhi said that the Curie temperature of the new permanent magnet material can reach 700 degrees Celsius, Sadao Hirano's eyes widened all of a sudden, and he immediately realized that the emergence of this new material will pose a fatal threat to NdFeB.

No, we have to get a patent for dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy. Otherwise, we will be squeezed out of the permanent magnet market. NdFeB will become an obsolete, low-end material, if not phased out. Its profit margins will also be squeezed to the extremely pitiful Cheng dù.

Once Sadao Hirano understood this truth, he immediately threw away his previous arrogance and said to Qin Hai: "Chairman Qin, please allow me to congratulate you on the discovery of this new permanent magnet material, I believe that it will definitely become a new material with the same status as NdFeB." Chunshan Kaisha is very interested in cooperating with your company on this new material. I don't know what the terms of cooperation you would like to have. ”

Qin Hai said lightly: "Mr. Hirano, what you said just now is not right, the emergence of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy is not only on par with NdFeB, but it is likely to completely replace NdFeB." I think you should be able to see that. ”

"This ...... I'm afraid Chairman Qin is too optimistic, right? Sadao Hirano said stubbornly, what Qin Hai said was exactly the same as his thoughts, but he couldn't publicly agree with it. As long as he devalues the value of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy, he will be able to win the best cooperation conditions for the Chunshan Society, which he understands very well.

Nakagawa Motohisa also thought of this problem, and he interjected unwilling to be lonely: "Chairman Qin, you should know that NdFeB is a mature product, and dysprosium terbium ferroalloy is not mature enough at present......

As soon as these words came out, Sadao Hirano almost had a desire to strangle this pig teammate. Maturity and immaturity are only relative things, and immature technologies will eventually become mature. Nakagawa Motohisa's words, at first glance, sounded like he was belittling the value of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy, but in fact, he handed the handle to the opponent's hand.

Of course, Qin Hai would not miss this opportunity, he laughed and said, "Mr. Nakagawa said it well, dysprosium terbium ferroalloy has indeed just come out, and it is still very immature. However, even such an immature product, it also shows that it surpasses the competitiveness of NdFeB, which does not show that this product has great market potential? We are very willing to work with Haruyama Kaisha to perfect this new material and bring it to a higher level. If Haruyama Kaisha is reluctant to participate in joint development at this time, when this technology matures in the future, the conditions for cooperation will probably be higher than now. ”

"Well, Chairman Qin, you can't say that...... The price of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy is much higher than that of NdFeB, which is an undeniable defect, and we believe that this defect will seriously hinder the market promotion of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy. Sadao Hirano said.

Sun Yuzhi said: "Mr. Hirano, we have also realized the problem you mentioned. We are now working to improve this product and try to reduce the content of dysprosium and terbium by adding other elements to guò, so that it can effectively reduce its price. I have already told Chairman Qin that if we can get the support of Chunshan, our research process will be greatly accelerated. ”

"I am very grateful for Sun Jun's kindness." Sadao Hirano bowed slightly to Sun Yuzhi, then turned to Qin Hai and said: "Chairman Qin, as Sun Jun said, the participation of our Chunshan company is helpful for your company to improve the dysprosium terbium ferroalloy material, so we hope that your company can put forward a more sincere cooperation condition, so that we can reach a cooperation intention as much as possible." ”

"Hmm...... All right. Qin Hai pretended to be half-pushed, and said, "Professor Sun did tell me that he hoped to cooperate with Chunshan Company, especially Mr. Hirano and Mr. Nakagawa. What does Mr. Hirano think about the possibility of exchanging the patent for NdFeB with Harayama with the patent of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy, and the improvement of the product within the scope of the patent between the two parties, and the technology shared by both parties. ”

NdFeB was invented by the Japanese, and at the beginning of the invention, the Japanese company applied for patents for a full range of products, among which the patent owned by Chunshan Company was the most critical. Protected by patents, if enterprises in other countries want to produce NdFeB products, they must pay patent fees to Chunshan Company, even if these enterprises carry out technological innovation and develop new products, as long as its main component is NdFeB, it involves patent issues, and you can't get around it.

Sadly, in fact, Chinese scholars have studied NdFeB no later than Japanese scholars, and it is only because of the lack of patent awareness and the lack of attention to the commercialization of technology that such an important patent as NdFeB is exclusively possessed by the Japanese. Before the NdFeB patent expired, China, as a major producer of NdFeB, had to put a large amount of profits in the hands of the Japanese every year.

Qin Hai understands the cause and effect of this matter, if he can travel a few years earlier, he may be able to get the patent of NdFeB before the Japanese. Now, the patent of NdFeB has been occupied by the Japanese, and what he can do is to use the patent of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy newly developed by Sun Yuzhi to exchange it with the Japanese.

"Patent exchange?" Qin Hai's proposal made Sadao Hirano stunned for a moment, and immediately fell into deep thought.

The value of NdFeB patents, Sadao Hirano is very clear. If this patent is shared with Daqin Group, once Daqin Group enters the NdFeB industry, Chunshan Company will lose a large amount of patent fee income. You know, China is a big rare earth country, and the cost of producing NdFeB is much lower than that of Japan, and Daqin Group can easily snatch most of Chunshan's overseas markets.

However, without the exchange of patents, the risk of Springhill will be greater. The replacement of dysprosium terbium ferroalloy for NdFeB is a foreseeable thing. If Chunshan Company could not obtain the patent authorization of dysprosium and terbium ferroalloy, then it would not be able to enter this market, and could only watch Daqin Group squeeze out NdFeB with dysprosium and terbium ferroalloy. In this emerging dysprosium terbium ferroalloy market, Chunshan Company doesn't even want to get a mouthful of soup.

It should be cost-effective to exchange a market facing a recession for a booming market.

"Chairman Qin, I can't call the shots in this matter, but I will tell the company headquarters as much as possible about your request, and the company headquarters will soon send a commissioner to negotiate with your company." Sadao Hirano decided to stabilize Qin Hai first and then make a decision. He added: "We still need to identify the properties of dysprosium and terbium ferroalloys, can you please provide us with some samples so that we can study them?" ”

"Absolutely, we are always waiting for your commissioner." Qin Hai readily agreed. (To be continued......)

PS: Explain: dysprosium terbium ferroalloy is fictional by the author, and everyone thinks it is a black technology of the 22nd century......