Just over a decade ago, governments and businesses in the advanced industrial economies became (publicly) concerned about access to rare earth elements, the minerals and metals that are critical to the production of high technologies and essential to a modern military.
Anxiety is rising again as those same countries contemplate a transition to a “green economy,” one in which demand for those same rare earths will explode. Ample and secure supplies of those resources will be vital not only to the realization of a greener economy, but will also determine which — and whose — technologies dominate that transformation.
Rare earth elements are 17 heavy metals essential to the manufacture of many high-tech products. The name is a misnomer: They aren’t actually rare, but economically exploitable deposits are hard to find. Mining and processing are dirty and expensive, which discourages their extraction.
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