What are rare earths and why are these minerals in the news?

With the on-going global trade discussions, the topic of rare earths often comes up. Rare earths are essential to modern technology and our national security and. given the current state of affairs where China controls 70 percent of the market (New York Times April 15, 2015), the situation is critical.

There are 17 metals known as rare earths, with esoteric names like cerium, yttrium and neodymium. Despite the term “rare earths,” they are not particularly scarce — all are more abundant than gold — but extracting and refining them is complex and costly.

Rare earths are crucial to the manufacture of semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, fighter jets and guided missiles used by the U.S. military, wind turbines, smartphones and LED lights found in millions of households. Many rare earths are heat resistant, so they are used to create high-quality magnets, glass, lights and batteries.

The U.S. was a leader in rare earths production in the 1980s, rapidly expanding with the need for rare earths for color televisions, with the main mine located in Mountain Pass at the border of California and Nevada, just north of Interstate 15. However, unable to compete with cheap rare earths from China (where environmental impacts of mining operations are poorly controlled and with an efficient Chinese process to extract the metals), that U.S. mine closed in 2002 and over time China took control of the market. The Mountain Pass mine reopened in 2017 and now produces 15 percent of global rare earths.

Although China is the world leader in rare earth production, mainly because of their extraction and refining facilities, they only control about 36 percent of the world’s reserves. Although Greenland is reported to contain large rare earths deposits, its reserves are much less than China, Vietnam, Brazil and Russia.

New Mexico does not have any known economic deposits of rare earths, but investigations are under way in the state (and all over the world) to identify economical deposits.

(Paul Parmentier, a certified professional geologist retired from California and living in Los Lunas, shares the rich geologic features in Valencia County. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Belgium and a master’s degree in geochemistry from Japan. The Geologic Landscapes and Observations of Surrounding Nature of Valencia County are featured monthly.)