Rare Earth Elements

What is a rare earth element?

The rare earth elements (also called lanthanides) are the set of 17 elements that have a high electrical conductivity. These elements are said to be the "technology metals" by the US Department of Energy. The name of these elements might deceive you, but they aren't actually rare. The reason they are called rare earth elements is because they are hard to find in large enough quantities to support economic mineral development and mining of them can also cause a hazard for the environment. Fortunately, the amount of the element needed is minimal when it comes to their uses. A small amount of a rare earth element can go a long way.

Rare earth elements in the future...

As we grow in technology, we are finding more and more ways to use the rare earth elements. Unfortunately, these elements are difficult to harvest and can cause harm to the environment when mined. The prices of some of these rare earth elements have also gone up drastically within the past few years. Currently the majority of these elements are coming from China, but lately there have been discoveries in other countries of locations that hold the elements, they just have to figure out how to mine them. It is said that the 5 most important of these elements that we will need in the future are neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium, yttrium. So are we going to find ways to mine them, or will these elements actually become "rare"? Only time will tell.

This page by Amanda K.