Story: Editor’s Note: This script and video have been re-evaluated as a framework reached with the China trade agreement to eliminate China’s export restrictions on rare earth minerals. This story was first published on February 28, 2025.
Rare earth minerals are used in almost every technique you think of.
They exist in cell phones, medical devices, wind turbines, weapons, and more.
But what are they? Why are they important? Are they really rare?
::What are rare earths and why are they important?
::Julie Michelle Klinger, geographer
“So the term rare earth element refers to 17 chemically similar elements in the lantern series.”
This is Professor Julie Michelle Klinger, a geographer and senior visiting researcher at the Institute of Human Sciences.
“So if you can imagine the periodic table of elements, that’s the column at the bottom. Elements 57 to 71 plus scandium and yttrium.”
Eric Onstad, Reuters’ special correspondent on merchandise, has some history.
:: Eric Onstad, Expert Correspondent, Products, Reuters
“These elements were first discovered by Swedish miners in 1787 near a village called ytterby, reflected in the name of two rare earths, Yttrium and Ytterbium. Another rare earth, Promethium, Promethium, was named Promethium by the wife of a discoverer, was the wife of a Greek man who stole this production from the gods and provided 90% of the production for humans on Earth, but interestingly, in the 1980s, the United States was the largest producer, and Europe was one of the largest processing plants in the world.”
::What do they use?
Klinger: “They are often described as vitamins or industrial flavors because they allow our technology to become smaller, faster, more powerful and more resilient.”
Elements such as Lantham and grape rocks (such as lanterns and dirt) are used in televisions and lighting.
Although ERBIUM and YTTRIUM applications can range from nuclear energy to lasers.
Onstad: “There are two big categories that really get people’s attention. The first is military use, ranging from goggles at night to precise missiles to radars. Of course, this is a very sensitive question. Turbine.
::What is the environmental impact of extraction?
“This is actually because of the challenges associated with refining rare earth elements, the heavy energy and resources and pollution risks, production has historically been concentrated in very few places.”
Processing rare earths usually involves the use of solvents that produce toxic waste.
More environmentally friendly technologies are being developed, but have not been widely used yet.
Onstad: “Another problem is that some rare earth sediments are radioactive. They include uranium and th. So some countries are not interested in countries that are mined in their countries.”
::Are they really rare?
But are they actually very few? Not really…
Onstad: “They are found all over the world. As far as sediments are concerned, no, they are not actually very rare. Sometimes there are very few of them in very small quantities. Apart from that, they are mixed with various other minerals. So the difficulty is sometimes every rare earth extracted from all other minerals involved in the sediments.”
