Rare earths: Minerals crucial for future tech

Rare earths are minerals used to make magnets crucial to the auto, electronic and defence industries, as well as in renewable energy.

- Agence France-Presse

The US Treasury Secretary slammed export curbs imposed by Beijing last week on technologies used for rare-earth mining, smelting, and other processing steps. Scott Bessent said on Thursday it was "China versus the world". Here are some key things to know:

Are they rare?

Not really. With names like dysprosium, neodymium and cerium, rare earths are a group of 17 heavy metals that are abundant throughout the Earth's crust.

The United States Geological Survey estimated in 2024 there were 110 million tonnes of deposits worldwide. That includes 44 million in China - by far the world's largest producer.

A further 22 million tonnes are estimated in Vietnam and 21 million in Brazil, while Russia has 10 million and India nearly seven million tonnes.

But mining the metals requires heavy chemical use that results in toxic waste and has caused several environmental disasters. Many countries are also wary of shouldering the high financial costs for production.