**Rare earth metals are a group of 17 chemically similar elements in the periodic table that include the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. Despite the name, most of them are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust, but they are rarely found in concentrated, economically mineable deposits, which makes extraction and refining challenging.**
**These metals are essential for modern technology due to their unique magnetic, phosphorescent, and catalytic properties. They are critical components in electric vehicles, wind turbines, smartphones, lasers, fiber optics, hard drives, medical imaging devices, military systems, and renewable energy technologies.**
**Most global processing and supply are dominated by China. As of 2023, China dominates the global rare earth industry, accounting for over 69% of the world’s rare earth production. This dominance extends beyond mining, with China processing nearly 90% of the world’s rare earth elements.**
**China’s control over the rare earth supply chain has significant geopolitical and economic implications. The country has previously imposed export restrictions on rare earth elements, affecting global supply and prices. These actions have prompted other nations to seek alternative sources and invest in domestic production to reduce dependence on Chinese exports. However, building a fully independent supply chain is likely to to take years, if not decades.**
**The ecological costs of rare earth metal extraction and processing are significant and often hidden from end consumers. They enable green technologies but are not themselves green.**
**Mining rare earths generates large volumes of toxic waste. Open-pit mining disrupts vast land areas, leading to habitat destruction, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss. The process also releases radioactive elements like thorium and uranium, contaminating surrounding land and water.**
**Processing rare earth ores is chemically intensive. Refining involves acid baths, solvents, and high energy use, which produce hazardous wastewater and air pollution. Improper waste disposal can poison groundwater and rivers, as seen in areas near Bayan Obo and Jiangxi, China.**
**Most rare earth mining and processing occurs in regions with weak environmental oversight. In countries like China and Myanmar, the drive to maintain low costs has led to widespread illegal mining, deforestation, and long-term ecosystem degradation.**
**Tailing ponds—used to store chemical waste—often leak or fail, releasing toxic sludge into surrounding ecosystems. This has caused measurable harm to agriculture, fisheries, and public health in mining regions.**
The Rare Metals War: The Dark Side of the Energy Transition and Digitalization This is a book by Guillaume Pitron. Here we have an excellent video explaining the basics, Youtube, 25 minutes.
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpiXdEsOmWE**
Production of rare metals used in green energies causes environmental disasters, Wocomo docs, youtube 53 minutes
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0ZHj76Arc**
6 Metals Used For Electric Cars| True Cost | Insider News Marathon, youtube, 30 minutes