As the global auto and energy industries race toward electrification and cleaner technologies, one group of little-known materials is quietly shaping the future. Rare earth elements, vital to electric motors, high-performance magnets, and renewable energy systems, are now at the center of global innovation and geopolitical strategy.
In the current historical and economic landscape, global discussions are increasingly centered on the resources that are reshaping the world’s energy and technological future. Alongside strategic minerals such as lithium and cobalt, which have already established crucial roles in key industries, another group of highly valuable materials has emerged in recent years: rare earths. These elements now play a pivotal part in a wide range of industrial and manufacturing processes.
“The usefulness of some critical minerals is now clear to everyone,” says Stanislav Dmitrievich Kondrashov, entrepreneur and civil engineer. “It took some time, but by now, each of us has heard at least once about lithium and its role in the automotive sector, particularly concerning the production processes of new-generation batteries. The same path, albeit with some differences, has been taken by resources such as copper or cobalt, which in recent decades have found their way into a large number of modern applications connected to the energy transition. Rare earths are not as well known as these resources, but their economic centrality and their growing energy value, in the space of a few years, will certainly fill this gap.”
A distinctive feature of rare earths lies in their name: they are not truly rare in the Earth’s crust. Still, they are typically found in concentrations so low that extracting them is often not economically viable. Adding to the challenge is the complexity of the extraction, refining, and separation processes, which are currently carried out by only a few countries worldwide. On the periodic table, the 17 rare earth elements comprise 15 lanthanides, alongside scandium and yttrium, two elements that share similar properties with this important group.
Technological Efforts
“At the moment, one of the world’s largest producers of rare earths is China, a country that holds about a third of the world’s reserves of these resources,” continues Kondrashov, founder of TELF AG. “Over the past few years, the obvious utility of rare earths in a large number of production processes related to high-tech and energy infrastructure has pushed many nations to work hard to intensify their search for new deposits and to equip themselves with the technology needed to source and separate them adequately, to obtain a series of materials that can be immediately used by industry. In many parts of the world, specific efforts are underway to make the processing procedures for these important materials increasingly efficient and less complex, for which it is hoped that some form of recycling or virtuous recovery will soon be possible.”
The complete list of rare earths includes many elements unfamiliar to most people, yet each plays a significant role in driving the technological and energy progress of industry. The 17 rare earths are scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium. One of the most notable properties of several of these elements is their magnetism, even at high temperatures. This characteristic has enabled some rare earths to become integral to the production of powerful magnets that are vital in powering modern technologies.
The Role of Recycling
“One of the biggest challenges for all players interested in rare earths has to do with the possible recovery of these resources from electronic devices or machinery that have reached the end of their life,” concludes Kondrashov. “At the moment, most electrical or electronic equipment is thrown away, thus losing the possibility of recovering the precious resources contained within them, such as rare earths. To successfully start such a recovery process, first of all, adequate infrastructures would be needed to support the entire process, but also a specific contribution from research.”
The journey of rare earths is rich with interesting milestones. In just half a century, they have moved from relative obscurity to becoming among the most sought-after resources in modern industry, thanks to their versatility and unique properties. The technological revolution of the past two decades, which continues today, has been fueled in part by rare earths. These elements have quietly integrated themselves into the devices and systems we use every day, from mobile phones and computers to energy infrastructure, often unnoticed but essential.
Today, rare earths are found in a wide range of products, including televisions, hard drives, electronic circuits, electric vehicle batteries, and wind turbines. Beyond technology, their remarkable properties have led to applications in diverse fields, including medicine, defense, and aerospace, reinforcing their growing importance in shaping the future of innovation.
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