Europium

Overview

Europium is a soft, silvery rare-earth metal, element 63, discovered in 1901 and named after Europe. It is very reactive: it tarnishes quickly in air and reacts with water to form a hydroxide.¹

Its uses rest on luminescence. When color televisions were first developed, a europium-doped phosphor proved a much brighter source of red than earlier materials, and low-energy lamps contain a little europium to balance blue light with warmer red. Europium is also used in euro banknotes, which glow red under ultraviolet light, and as a neutron absorber in reactor control rods.¹

Classification varies between sources. The USGS groups europium with the light rare earths, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has described it as a "medium" rare earth, and the EU counts it among the heavy rare earths.²³⁴ Europium is on the US 2025 List of Critical Minerals, and the EU lists heavy rare earths as critical raw materials.⁵⁶

Where it comes from

Like the other lanthanides, europium is found mainly in monazite and bastnaesite.¹ The US government records it as a potential by-product of other rare earths, iron ore and heavy mineral sands.⁵

It is a minor constituent of most ores. At Bayan Obo in China europium is about 0.2% of contained rare-earth oxide (REO); in the Xunwu and Xinfeng ion-adsorption clays of Jiangxi province it is about 0.5% and 0.9%.² DOE has noted that medium rare earths such as europium are found mainly in bastnaesite and monazite, while heavier rare earths are concentrated in ionic adsorption clays and xenotime in southeastern China.³

The European Commission found China to be the main global processor of europium, with 100% of supply, and the source of 100% of the EU's supply.⁴ The USGS does not publish europium production by country. For all rare earths combined, world mine output was an estimated 390,000 t REO in 2025, of which China produced about 270,000 t.⁷ The chart covers all rare earths, not europium alone.

• China270,000 t · 69%
• United States51,000 t · 13%
• Australia29,000 t · 7%
• Burma22,000 t · 6%
• Thailand4,800 t · 1%
• India2,900 t · <1%
• Madagascar2,700 t · <1%
• Russia2,600 t · <1%
• Other countries4,310 t · 1%

Covers all rare earths combined, in rare-earth-oxide terms; USGS does not publish europium output by country. World total is the USGS rounded figure; country figures sum to 389,310 t. USGS estimated Burma, Thailand and Madagascar from Chinese import data. Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Rare Earths

What it is used for

• Phosphors. Europium, terbium and yttrium are the rare earths most associated with the phosphor sector.² Fluorescent lamps depend on phosphors made from these three elements.³
• Security printing. Europium compounds provide the red glow under ultraviolet light used to check euro banknotes.¹
• Nuclear. Europium absorbs neutrons well and is used in reactor control rods.¹
• Other uses include laser materials and superconducting alloys.¹

The lighting market has changed sharply. In 2011 DOE rated europium as critical in the short term because of its use in phosphors for energy-efficient lighting, but expected light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which contain much less rare earth, to reduce lighting demand for europium, terbium and yttrium.³ DOE's 2023 assessment did not include europium among the materials it evaluated.⁸ The USGS expected the phosphor sector to grow more slowly than the rare-earth market as a whole.² In the EU's 2023 criticality assessment, lighting accounted for 10% of europium use and other applications for 90%.⁴

Grades and forms

Europium is traded mainly as high-purity oxide. China's October 2025 control list covered europium metal, magnesium-europium alloy, targets, luminescent materials including phosphors, crystal and hydrogen-absorbing materials, oxide and compounds.⁹ The metal is usually prepared by heating europium oxide with excess lanthanum under vacuum.¹

Trade and policy

The United States relied on imports for 67% of its rare-earth compounds and metals in 2025. Its main sources in 2021–24 were China (71%), Malaysia (13%), Japan (5%) and Estonia (5%).⁷

The suspension took effect on 7 November 2025, the day before Announcement No. 57 was due to start, so its europium controls have not been applied; the suspension runs until 10 November 2026.⁹¹⁰ China's April 2025 controls on samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium were not suspended.⁷

This section is factual background, not legal or trade-compliance advice.

Recycling and substitution

Limited quantities of rare earths are recovered from batteries, permanent magnets and fluorescent lamps.⁷ In lighting, the main substitution has been technological: LEDs need far less rare-earth phosphor than fluorescent lamps, and organic LEDs and halogen lamps use none.³

Sources

1. Europium: element information, properties and uses. Royal Society of Chemistry, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. 2020 Minerals Yearbook: Rare Earths. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Critical Materials Strategy (December 2011). U.S. Department of Energy, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Study on the Critical Raw Materials for the EU 2023: Final Report. European Commission, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals. Federal Register, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²

6. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 (Critical Raw Materials Act). EUR-Lex, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

7. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026: Rare Earths. U.S. Geological Survey, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

8. Critical Materials Assessment. U.S. Department of Energy, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩

9. Announcement No. 57 of 2025 on implementing export control on some medium and heavy rare earth related items (in Chinese). Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Announcement No. 70 of 2025 suspending Announcements No. 55–58, 61 and 62 of 2025 (in Chinese). Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, accessed 2026-10-03. ↩ ↩²