Lead-In to Rare Earths

🌱 What are rare earths?

There are only 17 elements that are classified as rare earths (or REEs), and they are all metallic elements. The so-called light rare earth elements (or LREEs) are cerium, europium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, and samarium. The so-called heavy rare earth elements (or HREEs) are dysprosium, erbium, gadolinium, holmium, lutetium, scandium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, and yttrium.[i]

🌱 What are rare earths needed for?

Many electronics and high-tech devices use rare earths.[ii] Amongst others, rare earth elements are found in “smartphones, wind turbines, MRIs, hard disk drives, LEDs, [and] electric motors”. They are also “found in all portable communication technologies (speakers)” and are essential components of “domestic appliances [and] servo motors in robotic arms”.[iii] That said, the largest amount of rare earths used globally goes into the manufacturing of permanent magnets. In 2022, this accounted for 44% of the total global demand.[iv]

🌱 In what quantities are rare earths needed?

The “weight, value, or volume” of rare earth elements used in products is usually small. That said, rare earth elements are necessary for many devices to function. Magnets containing rare earth elements, for example, often only have a very small amount of rare earth elements in them. Without these rare earth elements in the magnets, “the spindle motors and voice coils of desktops and laptops would not be possible”.[v]

🌱 What role do rare earths play for the energy transition?

The International Energy Agency says that “[r]are earth elements are essential for permanent magnets used in wind turbines and [electric vehicle] motors”.[vi] Rare earths are used for the permanent magnets located at the center of the blades of wind turbines. The magnets made with rare earths “increase the amount of power generated and can also reduce the maintenance needed for wind turbines”.[vii] Similarly, according to the EU, the “[e]lectric motors and generators driven by rare earth permanent magnets represent the most energy-efficient devices developed so far”.[viii] The four rare earths used most commonly in renewable energy technologies are dysprosium, neodymium, praseodymium, and terbium.[ix]

🌱 Which countries have rare earths?

Several countries have rare earth resources and reserves. Extracting these rare earths is, however, not easy because it “requires complex separation and refining processes”. Currently, the world’s largest producer of rare earths is China. It is also “virtually the only producer of the valued heavy REEs”. China’s production of rare earths accounts “for 70% of global mined production and 87% of global refined production”. In line with this, China produced “an estimated 210,000 tonnes of mined REEs and 175,000 tonnes of refined REEs” in 2022. Most of the remaining global mine production comes from the U.S., Australia, Myanmar, and Thailand. That said, Canada “has some of the largest known reserves and resources […] of rare earths in the world”. In 2023, the rare earth oxides in Canada were estimated to weigh over 15.2 million tonnes.[x] The EU, notably, “does not produce any rare earth elements itself”.[xi]

Learn more about different raw materials here.