Rare Earth Metals

In my prior entry on the fantastic book, The Unincorporated Man, I mention the importance of rare earth metals. In this entry on rare earth, I would like to explore what they are, determine if they are in fact rare, and what the future may hold for them.

Rare, which means uncommon, seldom seen, or having few of its kind.  Earth, the third planet from the sun which is comprised of land, water and atmosphere to supports life. And metals, the group of elements that are hard, opaque, shiny, and good conductors of heat and electricity.  So, rare earth metals are essentially shiny, hard material that is seldom found on our planet.

Rare earth metals are technically a group of 17 chemical elements: lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium. From a properties perspective, these metals possess high magnetic strength, luminescence, and catalytic properties. 

Despite their name, rare earth elements are not rare in terms of overall abundance.  They are frequently dispersed in the Earth’s crust, rather than grouped together in concentrated deposits as one finds say oil. This dispersion characteristic, meaning you will need to mine large volumes of material, sift and heat and extract with chemicals, makes the process complex, expensive, and time consuming.  Estimates in 2023 indicate that it requires 2,000 tons of ore and waste to produce 1 ton of rare earth metals; a ratio of two-thousand to one.  And of the 2,000 tons, much is toxic waste made up of radioactive residue, dust, waste gas, and wastewater.

With an increasing reliance on high tech, from AI to electric vehicles, our society relies more and more on rare earth metals. Forecasts predict that market growth for rare earth will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 10% through 2030.