Rare Earth Elements 17 is a group of chemical elements that play a small but irreparable role in many essential modern technology products.
Smartphones, flat screen TVs, digital cameras and LEDs rely on all tops, of course one of their most important uses known as permanent magnets.
These components can maintain their magnetics properties for decades, and because they are so strong, they can be much smaller and lighter than the currently available non-darlabh-earth options. As a result, they are important for the manufacture of electric vehicles and wind turbines.
But use for rare earth elements, known as rees, do not stop there. They are important for a vast range of defense technologies – from fighter jets to submarines and laser range finder.
This is part of strategic importance, both commerce and defense, which makes them so valuable. Neodymium and Praseodymium, the most important ree for permanent magnets, currently costs around € 55 ($ 62) around € 55 ($ 62). Terbium can sell for kg up to € 850.
Where are they from
17 elements are not “rare” because they may have a collective name. In fact, they are very common, found worldwide with trace volume legs.
This challenge comes in finding AEAS with high adequate concentrations to make the extractional wel with extraction. Right now, according to data from American Geological Survey, China has 70% of the world’s rare earth elements mined, which is the vast majority coming from the Ban Obi mine in the north of the country.
This single source is the order of larger magnitude compared to the next largest deposits on the planet – search as Mount Weld in Australia and Kawanfjeld in Greenland – and all the rare amounts of all the rare earth elements used to make magnets are included in large amounts.
Once they get out of the ground, they undergo a high specific process of isolation and refinement to convert them into usable compounds. This also, a large extent in China, means that the country is not only most of the most rare earth metals in the world, but most of its magnets.
This monopoly becomes even more powerful with some types of 17 rees, which are divided into three groups: light, medium and heavy, roughly based on their atomic weight.
Lighter elements are specificly less valuable and easy to source, the neodium and priority exception to the magnet component. This group has 80 to 100% European Union supply from this group from China.
And for heavy elements, which are very abundant and request another specific separation process, Europe is a source of 100% sources from China.
What happens if China cuts out access?
There are many western countries under China’s monopoly which are concerned about future reach. So in recent years, the US and the European Union have responded to the process of building the internal supply of rare earth elements and other important materials.
In 2024, the European Union signed the important raw material act, which sets a non-negotiable target for the amount of important materials, the European Union should produce itself by 2030. This allows the block to be “strategic projects,” within the European Union “and a search in a way to search, public acceptance and rapid track accepted and promote permits.
Megill, the US Department of Defense has been investing heavily in domestic companies since 2020 and has set a target to create an internal “min-to-magnet” supply chain by 2027.
Both the US and the European Union have expressed interest in unused sources of rare earth elements.
Ukraine and Greenland have become a field of significant interest for US President Donald Trump. Both have a very large possible deposit amount that is currently difficult to receive, which is uncertain for Western countries except for rare Earth elements.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker
