Rare Earth Elements

More than 200 minerals contain rare earth elements, but only a handful are mined. Here are the ones that matter and the deposits where they are found.

Lanthanum rarely makes headlines, yet it works inside oil refineries, hybrid car batteries, and camera lenses. Meet the abundant rare earth that is often treated as a by-product.

Used in small amounts, dysprosium and terbium keep NdFeB magnets strong when they run hot. Learn their role, where supply comes from, and how industry is cutting its dependence.

After covering yttrium and cerium as rare earth elements that get less media attention, this time it is the turn of two elements that get mentioned most often: neodymium and praseodymium. Both sit at the heart of the NdFeB permanent magnets that power electric vehicle motors and modern wind turbines. Why Neodymium and Praseodymium Are

If dysprosium and terbium are known as the rarest and most expensive rare earth elements, cerium sits at the opposite end of the spectrum: the most abundant rare earth element in the Earth’s crust, more abundant even than copper. Though it rarely gets as much attention as neodymium does for EV magnets, cerium quietly serves

Rare earth elements are often described as key materials for the clean energy transition, used in the magnets of electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. Yet obtaining them is not entirely clean. From mining to separation into individual elements, the rare earth supply chain carries environmental challenges that need to be understood, especially by countries

Amid the media’s dominant focus on neodymium and EV magnets, one rare earth element rarely gets the spotlight despite its broad role across high-tech industries: yttrium. With the symbol Y and atomic number 39, this element technically isn’t part of the lanthanide series, yet by convention it’s always grouped with rare earth elements — even

Once rare earth ore has been mined and undergone initial processing, as discussed in Rare Earth Extraction and Refining, the real challenge begins: separating the 17 mixed rare earth elements into individual, high-purity elements. This is what makes separation technology — not mining alone — the true critical bottleneck in the global REE supply chain.

When discussing rare earth supply chain geopolitics, it’s important to first understand the underlying map: who actually controls global rare earth reserves and production? The answer reveals an imbalance far more extreme than most other strategic mineral commodities. Highly Concentrated Production Dominance Unlike commodities such as copper or nickel, whose production is spread across dozens

Amid concerns over supply dependence and the volatility of rare earth prices, a natural question arises: is there a viable magnet alternative that doesn’t rely on neodymium or other rare earth elements? The answer is yes, though each alternative comes with its own trade-offs that need to be understood before being treated as an ideal